Former Egypt President Morsi dies in court

Cairo: Egypt's former President Mohammad Morsi has died in court according to Egyptian state TV.

Morsi, who was elected President of Egypt after the fall of the country's former leader Hosni Mubarak, was deposed by the military in 2013 following mass protests against his rule one year after taking office.

The Cairo criminal court sentenced Morsi to death over a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak as well as life imprisonment for giving state secrets to Qatar.

Turkey's President wishes Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a statement asking for "God's mercy for Egypt's first democratically-elected President Mohammad Morsi" according to Turkey's state news agency.

Morsi took power as Egypt's first democratically elected president in June 2012. But fears he was trying to set up an Islamist autocracy and his failure to ease hardships led to mass street demonstrations which triggered a move by the military to oust him. Morsi, along with other leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested and jailed.

He was succeeded by his Minister of Defence Abdul Fattah El Sisi, who recently won a landslide electoral victory in 2018 to rule Egypt for a second term.