ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday vowed to try to ensure the Egyptian government is tried in international courts for the death of former president Mohamed Morsi, who suffered a fatal heart attack in a Cairo court earlier this week.

“Mohamed Morsi flailed on the courtroom floor for 20 minutes and the authorities did not help him. This is why I say Morsi did not die, he was murdered,” Erdogan told supporters at an election rally in Istanbul.

“We, as Turkey, will follow this issue and do everything possible for Egypt to be tried in international courts for Morsi’s death,” he said, calling on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take action towards this end.

He spoke a day after he called Morsi a martyr and said he did not believe the former president died due to natural causes.

Erdogan urges OIC to take notice of the issue

Morsi, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist group which is now banned in Egypt, died on Monday after collapsing in a Cairo court while on trial on espionage charges.

The 67-year-old — the first democratically elected head of state in Egypt’s modern history — had been in jail since the army commanded by Egypt’s current president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled him in 2013 after barely a year in power following mass protests against his rule.

Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party supported Morsi’s short-lived Egyptian government, and many Brotherhood members and supporters have fled to Turkey since its activities were banned in Egypt.

Erdogan added he would raise the issue at the G20 summit in Japan at the end of the month.

Rights groups have called for an investigation into Morsi’s death and raised questions about his treatment in prison. Egypt’s government has dismissed accusations that he was badly treated.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2019