BREAKING: Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's Only Democratically-Elected President, Dies in Court

Egypt's former President Mohammed Morsi has died after fainting in a courtroom, state TV says. The former president was ousted by the army in 2013 and has since been answering to numerous charges. He died aged 67.

Morsi was born in the village of El-Adwah in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya in 1951. He studied Engineering at Cairo University in the 1970s before moving to the US to complete a PhD.

He was the presidential candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood's during the 2012 election after the movement's preferred choice was forced to pull out. He won the election in a narrow victory. He made the promise to head a government "for all Egyptians". 

Trouble escalated for Morsi when critics complained that he had failed to deliver during his turbulent year in office. They accused him of allowing Islamists to monopolise the political scene and mishandling the economy. Following these claims, public opposition to his government grew and millions of anti-government protesters took to the streets across Egypt to mark the first anniversary of the day he took office on 30 June 2013. 

This was followed by the army suspending the constitution on the evening of 3 July and announcing the formation of a technocratic interim government ahead of new presidential elections. Morsi denounced the announcement as a coup. He was then taken into custody by the army and had remained in custody since then.

Morsi spent almost two months in detention at secret locations before state prosecutors announced in September 2013 that he would stand trial for inciting his supporters to murder a journalist and two opposition protesters, and ordering the torture and unlawful detention of others. The charges related to clashes between opposition protesters and Muslim Brotherhood supporters outside the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo in December 2012. Morsi went on trial alongside 14 senior Brotherhood figures in November 2013. 

In April 2015, Morsi and the other defendants were sentenced to 20 years in prison after being acquitted of inciting murder but found guilty of ordering the torture and detention of protesters. Morsi had also been charged with several other offences, ranging from colluding with foreign militants to free prisoners during the 2011 uprising and leaking state secrets, to fraud and insulting the judiciary. He fainted and consequently died in court whilst answering to charges of espionage.

Header Image Credit: The Telegraph