CAIRO
The family of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi would lodge a complaint with the United Nations after they were denied the right to visit the deposed leader in jail, his son said Monday.
"We intend to file this complaint with the United Nations and we are seeking contacts with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to condemn this arbitrary measure by the [Egyptian] Interior Ministry," Osama Morsi told Anadolu Agency.
He, however, did not provide details about the date or channel through which the family would present its plea.
Since November, Morsi's family and lawyers have not been able to visit the jailed ex-leader after he had managed to smuggle a speech through lawyers, in which he called on Egyptians to continue "peaceful revolution."
Osama said he had gone to visit his father in Tora prison in southern Cairo when the jail authorities told him the ousted leader he was not there.
"He had gone days earlier to Alexandria's Burg al-Arab prison where the authorities also denied the presence of the [ousted] president," he added.
An Egyptian Interior Ministry source recently said a cell had been prepared for Morsi inside Tora's al-Aqrab Prison maximum security jail in case his trial sessions continue on a daily basis, citing the difficulty of moving the ousted president from Alexandria's Burg al-Arab prison to the site of his trial in eastern Cairo every day.
Morsi was flown to Burg al-Arab after appearing in court with seven other defendants to answer charges that he had incited the murder of anti-government demonstrators in 2012.
It was his first public appearance since his July 3 ouster by the army and subsequent arrest.
Morsi is currently standing additional trials on charges of espionage, insulting the judiciary and jailbreak.
Morsi's supporters insist that the charges against the ousted president – like those arrayed against other leading Muslim Brotherhood members and Islamist figures – are politically motivated and slam his overthrow as a military coup against a freely elected leader.
By Hussein Qabani
englishnews@aa.com.tr
