Morsi did not die natural death: Turkish president

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said Egypt's only democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi was murdered.

"Morsi did not die a natural death, he was killed," he said, in a no-holds-barred address in Istanbul.

Morsi died on Monday after falling unconscious during his trial on "espionage" charges. Activists and his family have long maintained that he was not receiving treatment for a host of health problems including diabetes.

“They did not give Morsi's body to his family. They even feared his body,” Erdogan said.

“Morsi wanted to be buried in his village. However, the Egyptian regime buried him not in his village but in their own designated location,” he added.

He vowed to pursue justice for this sudden and unexplained death.

"Turkey will do whatever it takes to prosecute Egypt [regime] in international courts," he said, urging the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take action.

“We will also raise the issue at the G20 meeting in Osaka,” he added.

Morsi, a leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, won Egypt's first free presidential election in 2012.

After only a year in office, however, he was ousted and imprisoned in a military coup led by then-Defense Minister and current President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.

At the time of his death, Morsi faced a host of legal charges, which he, along with numerous human rights groups and independent observers, said were politically motivated.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz