Ousted former Egyptian Islamist president Mohamed Morsi died on Monday after he fainted in court following a hearing, state television reported.

Morsi, a top figure in the Muslim Brotherhood who was the first democratically elected president in Egypt's modern history, had been in jail since he was toppled by the military in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

State television said Morsi, who was 67, was in court for a hearing on charges of espionage emanating from suspected contacts with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Morsi was serving a 20-year prison sentence for a conviction arising from the killing of protesters during demonstrations in 2012 and a life sentence for espionage in a case related to the Gulf state of Qatar. </s> Egyptian state TV reports that the former president collapsed during a court hearing. He was then rushed to a hospital in Cairo where he died.

“He was speaking before the judge for 20 minutes then became very animated and fainted,” a judicial source said. “He was quickly rushed to the hospital where he later died.”

Morsi served as President of Egypt from June 2012 but was ousted by a military coup in July 2013.

He was subsequently imprisoned and was standing trial on espionage charges. </s> The former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, the first ever freely elected leader of the country, collapsed while on trial in a Cairo court today and died, sparking condemnation over his treatment during years in jail.

Morsi, 67, was elected after the Arab Spring uprisings and served for a year until 3 July 2013 when he was deposed in a military coup led by the then defence minister, and now president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. He has been held in jail since his ousting.

During a trial on espionage charges today Morsi was granted permission to address the court in Cairo, which he did for 25 minutes from the cage in which he was held in, becoming emotional at times, before he said he felt tired and… </s> Mohamed El-Shahed, AFP | Mohamed Morsi pictured in June 2016 during his trial on espionage charges at a court in Cairo.

Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first democratically-elected president who was ousted by the military in 2013, has died after collapsing in court, state TV said on Monday.

Egypt's public broadcaster said the 67-year-old former president was attending a session in his trial on espionage charges when he blacked out and then died. His body was taken to a hospital, it said.

"He was speaking before the judge for 20 minutes then became very animated and fainted. He was quickly rushed to the hospital where he later died," a judicial source told AFP.

Morsi, who hailed from Egypt's largest Islamist group, the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, was elected president in 2012 in the country's first free elections following the ouster the year before of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.

The military ousted Morsi in 2013 after massive protests and crushed the Brotherhood in a deadly crackdown, arresting Morsi and many others of the group's leaders.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had forged close ties with Morsi, paid tribute to the former president, calling him a "martyr."

"May Allah rest our Morsi brother, our martyr's soul in peace," Erdogan said.

The Islamist leader had been in prison since his ouster, accused of spying for Iran, Qatar and militant groups such as Hamas in the Gaza Strip. He was also accused of plotting terror acts.

The years following Morsi's overthrow have seen a surge in bombings and shootings targeting security forces, particularly in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula, a stronghold of the Islamic State group. </s> Egypt’s former president, Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who rose to office in the country’s first free elections in 2012 and was ousted a year later by the military, collapsed in court during a trial and died, state TV and his family said. State TV, citing a medical source, said Morsi died from a sudden heart attack, the Reuters news agency reports.

Morsi had been Egypt’s elected president following the death of Hosni Mubarak in 2012, but was deposed after a military coup in 2013 that installed General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi into power.

Egyptian state TV says the 67-year-old Morsi was attending a court session Monday in his trial on espionage charges when he blacked out and then died before he could be taken to a hospital. Morsi had just addressed the court, speaking from the glass cage he was kept in during sessions and warning that he had “many secrets” he could reveal, a judicial official said.

A few minutes afterward, he collapsed, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. Morsi’s son, Ahmed, confirmed the death of his father in a Facebook post.

Morsi, a leader of Egypt’s largest Islamist group, the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, was elected president in 2012 in the country’s first free elections following the ouster the year before of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak. The military ousted Morsi in 2013 after massive protests and crushed the Brotherhood in a major crackdown, arresting Morsi and many others of the group’s leaders. Morsi had been imprisoned since his arrest and was previously sentenced to death for his alleged role in a mass prison break that took place during the 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak.

Mohammed Sudan, leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in London, described Morsi’s death as “premediated murder” saying that the former president was banned from receiving medicine or visits and there was little information about his health condition. Monday’s session was part of a retrial, being held inside Cairo’s Tura Prison, on charges of espionage with the Palestinian Hamas militant group.

“He has been placed behind glass cage (during trials). No one can hear him or know what is happening to him. He hasn’t received any visits for a months or nearly a year. He complained before that he doesn’t get his medicine. This is premediated murder. This is slow death.”

The judicial official said Morsi had asked to speak to the court during the session. The judge permitted it, and Morsi gave a speech saying he had “many secrets” that, if he told them, he would be released, but he added that he wasn’t telling them because it would harm Egypt’s national security. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry did not answer calls seeking comment.

Morsi, a leader of Egypt’s largest Islamist group, the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, was elected president in 2012 in the country’s first free elections following the ouster the year before of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak. The military ousted Morsi in 2013 after massive protests and crushed the Brotherhood in a major crackdown, arresting Morsi and many others of the group’s leaders. Morsi had been imprisoned since his arrest and was previously sentenced to death for his alleged role in a mass prison break that took place during the 2011 uprising that toppled Mubarak.

Mohammed Sudan, leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in London, described Morsi’s death as “premediated murder” saying that the former president was banned from receiving medicine or visits and there was little information about his health condition. Monday’s session was part of a retrial, being held inside Cairo’s Tura Prison, on charges of espionage with the Palestinian Hamas militant group.

“He has been placed behind glass cage (during trials). No one can hear him or know what is happening to him. He hasn’t received any visits for a months or nearly a year. He complained before that he doesn’t get his medicine. This is premediated murder. This is slow death.”

The judicial official said Morsi had asked to speak to the court during the session. The judge permitted it, and Morsi gave a speech saying he had “many secrets” that, if he told them, he would be released, but he added that he wasn’t telling them because it would harm Egypt’s national security. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry did not answer calls seeking comment.

He has been sentenced to 20 years after being convicted of ordering Brotherhood members to break up a protest against him, resulting in deaths. An earlier death sentence was overturned. Multiple cases are still pending.

Morsi was held in a special wing in the sprawling Tora detention complex nicknamed Scorpion Prison. Rights groups say its poor conditions fall far below Egyptian and international standards. </s> Egypt’s ousted president Mohammed Morsi collapsed and died in court on Monday during a court session, state TV said.

Morsi was the fifth president of Egypt from June 2012 until July 2013, when General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi removed him from office in the 2013 Egyptian coup d’état after the June 2013 Egyptian protests. </s> Cairo (CNN) Ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy collapsed and died in a Cairo court Monday, soon after making a final statement in his trial on espionage charges.

Egypt's first democratically elected leader, Morsy, 67, had just been led back to a soundproof glass cage inside the courtroom when he fell unconscious, Egypt's public prosecution office said in a statement.

"He spoke 7 minutes just before the trial session adjourned," Morsy's lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maqsoud told CNN. "A minute after, we saw fuss in the court glass box, we could hear the defendants screaming, Dr. Morsi has fallen," said Abdel Maqsoud, who is also the lead lawyer for the banned Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Morsy had closed his final statement by quoting a verse of a poem that read, "My country is dear even if it oppressed me and my people are honorable even if they were unjust to me," Abdel Maqsoud said.

Egypt's state-run Al Ahram online reported that the former leader suffered a heart attack. He was pronounced dead after arriving at hospital at 4:50 p.m. (10:50 a.m. ET), the prosecutor's office said. No apparent injuries were found on his body, it added.

On Monday evening, Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reacted to the news, calling Morsy a "brother" and a "martyr," according to state-run news agency Anadolu.

Erdgoan also tweeted about Morsy's death, saying he had "conducted one of the biggest democratic struggles of the history."

Morsy was buried in Nasr City, a district in eastern Cairo, alongside other senior figures of the Muslim Brotherhood, his wife Naglaa Mahmoud said on her Facebook page on Tuesday.

Egyptian authorities barred Morsy's relatives from burying his body in his home province of Sharqiya, Mahmoud said. Family members were allowed to attend the burial, she said.

According to Islamic law and Egyptian tradition, the deceased should be buried as soon as possible. Muslim burial rites are commonly performed the same day or within 24 hours of death.

A polarizing figure

A strict Islamist who was educated in southern California, Morsy was voted into power in June 2012 following the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak's longstanding rule

A senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsy had campaigned on appealing to the broadest possible audience.

But, during his year in power, critics say he became an authoritarian leader who forced through a conservative agenda.

In 2013, Morsy and the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood movement were ousted in a coup, with the Muslim Brotherhood banned by the government after the military seized power and declared it a terrorist organization.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a religious and political group founded on the belief that Islam is not simply a religion, but a way of life. The group advocates moving away from secularism and returning to the rules of the Quran as a basis for healthy families, communities and states.

The Brotherhood has branches in 70 countries , but not all of the branches operate under the same identity. In Egypt , the group has been part of the political scene for more than 80 years.

The movement officially rejects the use of violent means to secure its goals. However, offshoots of the group have been linked to attacks in the past, and critics blame the Brotherhood for sparking troubles elsewhere in the Middle East.

In August 2013, roughly 1,000 Egyptians -- many of them Morsy supporters -- were killed during protests against the military government.

Supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsy demonstrate in Cairo in November 2013.

Following his ouster, Morsy was tried en masse with Mohamed Badie -- the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood -- as well as more than 100 alleged members of the outlawed group, according to state media.

In 2015, he was sentenced to death over a jailbreak during the 2011 uprising and to life in prison on espionage charges after being convicted of conspiring with Palestinian group Hamas, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and other foreign organizations.

Both of those sentences were widely criticized as political grandstanding.

Morsy was also handed a 25-year prison sentence for leaking state secrets to Qatar, and had received an additional 15-year sentence for other, lesser, charges.

In 2016, Morsy's death sentence and life sentence were overturned

'Cruel, inhuman treatment'

Abdel Maqsoud said Morsy had not been allowed to see his lawyers or communicate with the outside world or his family, and that he had been detained in solitary confinement before his death.

Morsy's son, Abdullah, said the family was denied permission to visit him. "The family was able to see him only three times since 2013," Abdullah told CNN.

Last year, in a report from a panel commissioned by Morsy's family and made up of British Parliamentarians said that the conditions of his detention "would constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment," and "could meet the threshold for torture in accordance (with) Egyptian and International law." The panel wrote that Morsy is receiving inadequate medical care "which is likely to lead to premature death."

On Monday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called Morsy's death "entirely predictable" accusing the government of failing to allow him adequate medical care while he was in prison.

"At the very least, the Egyptian government committed grave abuses against Morsy by denying him prisoners' rights that met minimum standards," said Sarah Leah Whitson, the group's Middle East and North Africa director.

The Egyptian government said HRW's statement and reporting was "nothing but political exploitation in the name of human rights" and a "new ethical low."

Amnesty International said in a tweet that an investigation into Morsy's death and the conditions of his detention was an "urgent requirement," citing Egypt's "proven track record of holding prisoners in solitary confinement for long periods and in harsh conditions."

In a statement on Monday, the Muslim Brotherhood said it held Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his regime "accountable for the killing of the elected legitimate president, politically and criminally," and demanded an independent review into the circumstances of Morsy's death.

The group has called for demonstrations outside Egyptian embassies around the world at 10 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET).

Egyptian state media Al-Ahram reported Monday that Morsy was regularly examined by doctors and "was treated in accordance with the law while in detention." </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Court footage from 2015: Mohammed Morsi greets lawyers and supporters from behind bars

Egypt's former President Mohammed Morsi, ousted by the military in 2013 after one year in office, has collapsed in a courtroom and died, officials say.

A top figure in the now-banned Islamist movement Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi had just spoken from a cage at a hearing on charges of espionage. State TV said the cause of death was a heart attack.

Morsi, who was 67, had been in custody since his removal after mass protests.

The Muslim Brotherhood said the death was a "full-fledged murder".

Activists and his family had long said Morsi was not receiving treatment for serious health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes, and was constantly being held in solitary confinement.

What happened in court?

Morsi collapsed moments after addressing the court in Cairo over charges of espionage related to suspected contacts with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which had close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

He spoke for some five minutes from a soundproof glass cage which officials said was designed to prevent him from disrupting proceedings. Morsi was pronounced dead in hospital at 16:50 local time (14:50 GMT) and an initial report showed no signs of recent injuries on the body, Egypt's public prosecutor said.

Last month, his family said authorities had repeatedly denied access to him and that they knew little about the state of his health. During his time in prison, Morsi was allowed only three visits from relatives and was denied access to his lawyers or a doctor, according to human rights group Amnesty International.

His son Abdullah told the Reuters news agency he did not know the location of the body and that authorities were refusing to allow Morsi to be buried in his native Nile Delta province of Sharqiya.

Morsi, who became Egypt's first democratically elected leader in 2012, had already been sentenced to more than 45 years in prison in three separate trials, including for leading an outlawed group, detention and torture of anti-government protesters and leaking state secrets.

He had always rejected the authority of the courts, and his supporters denounced the trials as politically motivated and attempts to give legal cover to a coup based on unreliable witnesses and scant evidence.

A death certain to inflame passions

The death of a leader, remembered by many as Egypt's first democratically elected president, is certain to inflame passions among his supporters and allies in Egypt and beyond. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been quick to describe him as a martyr. Others are certain to do the same.

There has long been concern about the politicised trials which have kept him in prison, as well as his conditions of confinement. Morsi had a history of ill-health.

But last year, a British parliamentary panel reported he was being kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, which they concluded could be classified as torture. They warned this could lead to premature death.

His sudden collapse comes at a time when the United States, reportedly at the request of Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, is working to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organisation. The death of one its most senior figures will deepen the anger and anxiety in this global Islamist movement.

What has the reaction been?

The Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, said Morsi's death amounted to an "assassination", and urged supporters to gather at the funeral and demonstrate outside Egyptian embassies around the world.

"They placed him in [solitary] confinement throughout his detention which exceeded five years, prevented medicine and provided poor food... They prevented doctors and lawyers and even communicating with his family. They deprived him from the simplest human rights."

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was a close ally, blamed Egypt's "tyrants" for the death while the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, another ally, expressed his "deep sorrow".

Crispin Blunt MP, who led a panel of British MPs who had warned about Morsi's health, called for a "reputable independent international investigation", and said Egypt's government had a "duty to explain his unfortunate death".

Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa Magdalena Mughrabi said: "[Morsi] was held in solitary confinement for almost six years, placing a considerable strain on his mental and physical wellbeing... [H]e was effectively cut off from the outside world."

Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said Morsi's death was "terrible but entirely predictable".

Who was Morsi?

Born in the village of El-Adwah in 1951, Morsi studied Engineering at Cairo University in the 1970s before moving to the US to complete a PhD.

He was chosen as the Muslim Brotherhood's presidential candidate for the 2012 election after the movement's preferred choice was forced to pull out. During his turbulent year in office, Morsi was accused of mounting an Islamist coup and mishandling the economy.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Morsi was ousted by the army in 2013 after mass protests

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.

Three days later, the army suspended the constitution, announced an interim government ahead of new elections and detained Morsi, who denounced the move as a coup. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, then army chief, was elected president in 2014 and re-elected last year in polls rights groups called "farcical".

After Morsi's removal, authorities launched a crackdown on his supporters and other dissent, and hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands others detained in conditions often described as being in violation of their human rights. </s> Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president, collapsed in court and died Monday while facing trial, state television reported.

Morsi, 67, died of an apparent heart attack, according to Egyptian media reports. He had been imprisoned since 2013, when his elected government was overthrown in a military coup led by the country’s then military leader, Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, who is now president.

Morsi, a top leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood party, was on trial on a range of charges, including espionage and inciting violence.

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted in a coup in 2013 and has been detained in jail since then, dies after fainting during an espionage court hearing.