Egypt's ex-president elected by popular vote and overthrown by a coup: Who is Mohammed Morsi?

While Egyptian State Television claimed that Morsi died in the courtroom, Tunisian former President Munsif Marzuki said in a statement to Al-Jazeera television that Morsi was martyred under torture.

Egypt's Nile News Television also claimed that Morsi's body was taken to the hospital and that Morsi died of a heart attack after an autopsy. The Egyptian Prosecutor General stated in his medical report that Morsi suddenly fell to the ground after giving a speech at the hearing; He said that there was no wound on his body. At the hearing in question, the country's first elected President would be accused of "espionage".

Mohammed Morsi was banned from visiting for 6 years, his treatment was not allowed, he was detained for drugs, and he was prevented from communicating with his lawyers. He could not benefit from any of the rights granted to all prisoners in the world.

WHO IS MUHAMMED MURSI?

President Mohammad Morsi, who came to power for the first time with the first democratic free elections in Egypt's thousands of years of history, was born on August 8, 1951, in the village of Eladva, in the province of Sharjah in the north of Egypt.

The eldest of five siblings, Mursi received his primary education there. His father was a farmer and his mother was a housewife. He received his engineering degree from Cairo University (1975 and 1978). Married to Necla Mahmud on 30 November 1978, Mursi was the father of 5 children, 4 boys, and 1 girl. Their children's names are as follows: Şeyma, Osama, Abdullah, Ahmed, and Ömer.

He completed his Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Southern California (1982). He was an assistant professor at California State University, Northridge (1982-1985). He then came to Zagazig University in Egypt to teach. He served as the dean of the faculty of engineering at Zagazig University from 1985 to 2010. In addition to these, he has worked at Tripoli University, Cairo University, Zagazig University, and the University of Southern California in Libya and has done dozens of studies in the field of "Soil Hardening Solutions". He was elected as a member of the education committee at Zagazig University. He also served at NASA. He gained experience in metallurgy here and contributed to various inventions.

He entered politics in the Muslim Brotherhood (Ihvan-i Muslim) movement, to which he was close in thought. Morsi was an MP between 2000 and 2005. Since the Muslim Brotherhood was not legally able to participate in the elections, he entered parliament as an independent politician. He was a member of the Egyptian People's Assembly for 5 years. He supported the 2011 Egyptian Revolution as an opposition leader, and on April 30, 2011, he was elected chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party, founded by the Muslim Brotherhood.

In the 2012 Egyptian Presidential Elections, the candidacy of Hayrat Shatir, nominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, was dropped, and Mohammed Morsi was elected instead. He turned sixty in 2012. He was a member of the Irshad bureau. He resigned from the guidance office when he was chosen by the Brotherhood as the leader of the Freedom and Justice Party. He was a modest man with mature thoughts. He would stay away from discussions that were only a waste of time.

Morsi conducted an intense election campaign. The first round resulted in a runoff between Mohammed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq. Ahmed Shafiq was in the eyes of many Egyptians a copy of the Mubarak era. He was against the "Arab Spring", a staunch supporter of Mubarak. 

Morsi and Shafik had reached the second round among thirteen candidates. There was an intense public interest in each candidate. The closest candidate to these was Abdulmun'im Ebu'l Futuh, who came in third. He left the Muslim Brotherhood to become an independent candidate. Because the Brotherhood refused to run for them. 

Mohammed Morsi said that Christians (whose population is a little less than 10% of Egypt's total population) will enjoy the same rights as Muslims in his time. He also stated that he will include two Coptic advisors in the structure he calls the "Presidential Institution". He also stated that he would not prevent the construction of new churches and the establishment of Christian political parties. He said: The Copts of Egypt will enjoy all the rights contained in the law. The most important of these is freedom of belief and worship. Islam commands us to protect churches as it commands us to protect mosques.

In November 2012, opposition voices began to rise against Mohammed Morsi in Egypt.

While Morsi was working on the constitution, which opponents criticized for 'introducing sharia', Morsi signed a decree that gave more powers to the president.

After days of protests, he agreed to narrow the scope of this decree.

However, after the Constitutional Commission, mostly made up of Islamists, approved a hastily prepared draft at the end of the same month, the country became tense again.

Liberals, secularists, and the Coptic Church boycotted the work.

In the face of rising social unrest, Morsi signed a decree authorizing the armed forces to protect state institutions until 15 December 2012, when the draft constitution will be submitted to a referendum.

Opponents argued that this was a declaration of a state of emergency.

The army returned to the barracks after a while, but over the next few weeks, more than 50 people were killed in clashes between supporters and opponents of Morsi.

On January 29, 2013, then Chief of General Staff Abdülfettah es-Sisi warned that the political crisis "could cause the collapse of the state".

In his speech the day before the anniversary of his election victory, Morsi used a conciliatory tone and said that "he made too many mistakes and they need to be corrected".

On July 1, the army gave Morsi an ultimatum, warning that it could intervene if it could not come up with a "road map" that would satisfy societal demands.

Morsi argued that as the ultimatum approached, he was the legitimate leader of Egypt and that any step to remove him would plunge the country into chaos. In one of his speeches, he said, "Legitimacy is the only way to preserve the peace of the country, prevent it from turning into a bloodbath, and then move on to a new stage."

On July 3, 2013, the military intervened in the government and announced that it was suspending the constitution. He announced that a technocrat transitional government would be formed that would lead the country to elections.

Morsi described this statement as a "coup" and condemned it.

There was no news for weeks from Morsi, who was taken to a secret place by the army.

Morsi was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2015 for "ordering the arrest and torture of demonstrators in December 2012".

In 2011, he was sentenced to death in a case where he was tried for allegedly playing a role in the escape of Islamist militants from prison.

The Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of Morsi in 2016.

In the same year, Morsi was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in the trial for spying for Qatar.

When Egypt's former president died in the courtroom, he was on trial in "another espionage case for his contacts with Hamas".