DOHA, June 19 — The death of Mohamed Mursi, modern Egypt's first democratically elected head of state, while on trial in a Cairo court, has brought an outpouring of condolences around the Middle East and calls for an investigation into his conditions.
The 67-year-old Islamist, a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, was deposed by the army and jailed in 2013 after barely a year in power following mass protests against his rule.
As his body was buried yesterday, some people condemned harsh prison conditions as a likely cause of his heart attack and blamed current president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Here is some of the reaction:
Rights lawyer Khalid Ali
“Medical negligence and policies of slow death through solitary confinement in prison are all tools to kill.
“Agree or disagree as you wish with Dr Mohamed Mursi, but what he was subjected to as a human being since his arrest and the conditions he was placed under that ended in his death are crimes that deserve trial and punishment.”
Arab Network for Human Rights Information
“He was not the first victim of human rights violations, but he must be the last.”
Qatar's Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad al Thani
“We received with deep sorrow the news of the sudden death of former President Dr. Mohamed Mursi. I extend to his family and to the brotherly Egyptian people the deepest condolences.”
Ayman Nour, opposition liberal politician
He called Mursi “a martyr who was killed deliberately, slowly, over six years, during which he faced all kinds of abuse and hardship ... Sisi and his regime are fully responsible for the result.”
AMR Darrag, senior member of Brotherhood's political party
“Mohammed Mursi was deliberately killed with premeditated intent ... Sisi is the murderer and there must be a transparent and independent international investigation.”
Moderate Islamist al-Wasat party
“This great shock is perhaps a reminder of the risk that is posed by negligent medical attention, humanitarian care and denial of visitation faced by a large number of political prisoners, a risk that threatens all of their lives.”
Iran's foreign ministry
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, while respecting the views of the great and brave nation of Egypt, offers its sympathies over the death of Dr Mohamed Mursi to the Egyptian people, his family and his loved ones.”
Yusuf Qaradawi, senior Doha-based cleric
“May God have mercy on the patient and calculated Egyptian president, Dr Mohamed Mursi ... May Allah accept him as a martyr.”
Former footballer Mohamed Aboutrika
“May Allah have mercy on Dr Mohamed Mursi, the former President of Egypt, and grant him a place in paradise and forgiveness.”
UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville
“Concerns have been raised regarding the conditions of Mr Mursi’s detention, including access to adequate medical care, as well as sufficient access to his lawyers and family, during his nearly six years in custody. He also appears to have been held in prolonged solitary confinement.
“The investigation should be carried out by a judicial or other competent authority that is independent of the detaining authority.”
Murad Adaylah, head of Jordan's Islam Action Front Party
“This martyr ... was killed ... by the Egyptian regime forces, the forces of the coup who prevented him from getting his medicine and carried out a crime against Mursi.
“What is happening now is stirring up the nation and the Egyptian people. Mohamed Mursi is the martyr of freedom, the martyr of legitimacy, the martyr of democracy, the martyr of the free elections.”
Amnesty International
Egypt has “an appalling track record of detaining prisoners in prolonged solitary confinement and in dire conditions as well as subjecting prisoners to torture and other ill-treatment.”
Tawakkol Karman, joint recipient of Nobel Peace Prize
“I mourn, for myself and all the free people of the world, the death of a great striver on the path of freedom.” — Reuters
