Egypt has slammed the United Nations for politicizing the death of Mohammed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president. The 67-year-old Morsi died on Monday shortly after collapsing in a Cairo court while on trial on espionage charges.
Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights, on Tuesday, called for an investigation into the former President’s death amid growing criticism about prison conditions in the Middle East nation. It called for a probe into whether the conditions Morsi faced during his nearly six years in custody had contributed to his death. He was laid to rest in eastern Cairo early on Tuesday, reportedly under tight security.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez on Wednesday said he condemned the call made by UN for an independent investigation into Morsi’s death in the strongest terms, reported BBC. He insisted that it was a case of natural death.
Hafez said it was a deliberate attempt by the UN to politicize a case of natural death. He accused the international body of trying to “[obscure] the institutions of the Egyptian state and the integrity of the Egyptian judiciary.”
He added that any suggestion of foul play was “not based on any evidence.”
Notably, Morsi had been in jail since the military ousted him in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. His family has long raised concerns over his treatment in prison and says that the authorities refused a request for him to be buried in his home province of Sharqiya in the Nile Delta.
His former party, Muslim Brotherhood, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a close ally of Morsi, blamed the Egyptian leadership for his death. Human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also called for an independent investigation into Morsi’s death.
