Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that the Egyptian government should be tried in international courts for the death of former President Mohamed Morsi.
Morsi, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood group which is now banned in Egypt, died on Monday after collapsing in a Cairo court while on trial on espionage charges.
Egypt’s first freely elected president was deposed in a 2013 coup orchestrated by the current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and placed under house arrest before being moved to prison.
“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 on Wednesday at an election rally in Istanbul.
On Tuesday, the UN called for a “thorough and transparent investigation” into the death of Morsi, drawing criticism from Egypt, which accused the UN of seeking to “politicise” his death.
“Any sudden death in custody must be followed by a prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent investigation carried out by an independent body to clarify the cause of death,” Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights, said.