Mursi’s death

We cannot hold mortality’s strong hand. However, former Egyptian president Mohamed Mursi’s death has sparked a controversy whether he died of natural causes or due to negligence by the authorities. On June 17, Mursi collapsed moments after addressing a court in Cairo over charges of espionage related to suspected contacts with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. State TV said the cause of death was a heart attack. Mursi, 67, had been in custody since his removal from office in 2013. Activists and his family reportedly had long said he was not receiving proper treatment for diabetes and high blood pressure and was constantly being held in solitary confinement. He was buried in Cairo, his son Ahmed Mursi said on June 18. The family claimed they wanted to bury him in his home town, Sharqiya, in the Nile Delta but the authorities did not allow this.

Mursi remained president from June 30, 2012 to July 3, 2013, and was overthrown in an army coup after anti-government public protests. Protesters took to the streets across Egypt to mark the anniversary of the day he took office, on June 30. Three days later, the army suspended the constitution, announced an interim government ahead of new elections and detained Mursi, who denounced the move as a coup. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief, was elected president in 2014 and re-elected last year in polls rights groups called “farcical.” After Mursi’s removal, the authorities launched a crackdown on his supporters and other dissent, and many have allegedly been killed and many detained in conditions reportedly described as being in violation of human rights. Analysts say the death might inflame passions among his supporters and allies in Egypt and beyond. Turkey’s President, Recip Tayyip Erdogan, has been quick to describe him as a “martyr.” Other allies might do the same. Egypt has a sizable population of Coptic Christians. Mursi, during his tenure as president, had described them as much an Egyptian as he was. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2019.

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