United Nations
The United
Nations has called for a 'thorough and transparent investigation' into the death of Mohamed Morsi in
court, as thousands of people across the Middle East paid their respects
to Egypt's
former president.
 |
| Morsi was buried in a small family ceremony in Cairo |
The UN
human rights office on Tuesday said the investigation should encompass all aspects
of his treatment during nearly six years of his incarceration.
Egypt's
first democratically president was buried in a small family ceremony early on
Tuesday a day after he suffered a fatal heart attack in a Cairo court, his sons
said.
"Concerns
have been raised regarding the conditions of Mr Morsi's detention, including
access to adequate medical care, as well as sufficient access to his lawyers
and family ...," UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said in a
statement.
"The
investigation should be carried out by a judicial or other competent authority
that is independent of the detaining authority and mandated to conduct prompt,
impartial and effective investigations into the circumstances and causes of his
death," he said.
Morsi was
overthrown on July 3, 2013, after barely in power for a year in a coup staged
by current President Abdel Fattah
el-Sisi and placed under house arrest before being moved to
prison.
Morsi's
death has brought an outpouring of condolences from around the Middle East.
"I
mourn, for myself and all the free people of the world, the death of a great
striver on the path of freedom," said Tawakkol Karman, joint recipient of
Nobel Peace Prize.
Al
Jazeera Jamal Elshayyal, reporting from Doha said that hundreds of mourners
gathered at a local mosque to pay their respects to the former president.
"The
presence of Khaled Meshaal, the former leader of the Palestinian resistance
movement, Hamas, is a testament that Morsi is seen as a champion of other
causes such as struggle for freedom in Palestine," he said.
Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended a
prayer service in Istanbul for the former Egyptian president.
At
Istanbul's Fatih mosque, where thousands joined in prayers, Erdogan called
Morsi a "martyr" and blamed Egypt's "tyrants" for his
death, adding that he didn't believe that Morsi died of natural causes.
The
Turkish president also denounced the Egyptian authorities for burying Morsi
discreetly, with only a small number of family members and confidants present.
 |
| The Turkish president called Morsi a "martyr" and blamed Egypt's "tyrants" for his death |
Journalists
were kept away from the burial service in Cairo, while a family request to
bury him in his home town was turned down.
But mourners
still gathered in the former president's home province of Sharqiya to pay their
respects.
Exiled
Egyptian opposition politician Ayman Nour called Morsi "a martyr who was
killed deliberately".
Amr
Darrag, a senior member of Brotherhood's political party who also lives in
exile, said: "Sisi is the murderer and there must be a transparent and
independent international investigation."
Rights
bodies, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have also called for a
credible investigation into Morsi's death.
"The
government of Egypt today bears responsibility for his death, given their
failure to provide him with adequate medical care or basic prisoner
rights," HRW said in a statement to Al Jazeera.
"He's
been in prison and treated worse than the already terrible conditions for
Egypt's prisoners," Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the HRW's
Middle East and North Africa division, told Al Jazeera, decrying Morsi's
"terrible but entirely predictable" death.
"The
Egyptian government has known very clearly about his declining medical state.
He had lost a great deal of weight, he had fainted in court a number of times
and was being kept in almost around-the-clock solitary confinement."
A leading
member of the Muslim Brotherhood group, Morsi won Egypt's first free
presidential election in 2012, a year after an uprising that toppled longtime
leader Hosni Mubarak.
Turkey's
ruling AK Party supported Morsi's government and many Brotherhood members and
supporters have fled to Turkey since its activities were banned in Egypt in
2013.
"There
are Arab dissidents and journalists who have been residing in Turkey since the
Arab Spring began and people are here to give support for Morsi's cause,"
Al Jazeera's Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul's Fatih Mosque,
said.
At the
time of his death, Morsi, 67, faced a host of legal charges, which he, along
with many human rights groups and independent observers, said were politically
motivated.
Thousands
of members of now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood organisation, who were arrested
in the crackdown following the 2012 coup, are still languishing in jails.
Egypt's
government has dismissed accusations that the former president was badly
treated. -
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