Kit Siang, Hadi call for probe into Morsi’s death

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang.

PETALING JAYA: Two rival politicians appeared to be in agreement today in questioning the Egyptian authorities over the death in custody of the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohamad Morsi.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and DAP’s Lim Kit Siang said there should be an impartial inquiry into Morsi’s death, following reports that he had been denied basic medical care in prison.

“We call on Egyptian and international authorities to conduct an impartial and transparent investigation into the circumstances of Morsi’s death, including his solitary confinement and mistreatment,” Hadi said in a message offering condolences over Morsi’s death.

Lim cited reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on the deteriorating health of the former leader and the alleged denial of treatment by Egypt’s military junta.

“The international community should hold the Egyptian government responsible for Morsi’s death if an impartial, thorough and transparent international inquiry establishes that the death was the result of the failure of the authorities to provide necessary medical care to Morsi,” the DAP strongman said in a statement.

Morsi’s Freedom and Justice Party had earlier accused Egyptian authorities of “deliberately killing him slowly”.

They “put him in solitary confinement… they withheld medication and gave him disgusting food… they did not grant him the most basic human rights,” it said in a statement quoted by Reuters.

Morsi came to power after his party, which was aligned with Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood group, won the polls and the subsequent presidential election, following the overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak.

Morsi was overthrown in a 2013 military coup by former defence minister and current president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has launched a crackdown targeting Muslim Brotherhood sympathisers.

Rights groups have said that thousands were jailed with hundreds facing death sentences after summary trials. - FMT