Istanbul:Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for the prosecution of Egyptian government officials who “murdered” the country’s first democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi.
Erdogan told an election rally on Wednesday that Morsi “did not die, he was murdered,” days after the former Egyptian president suffered a fatal heart attack in a Cairo court.
Erdogan said he will push to ensure the Egyptian government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is held into account by international courts for Morsi’s death.
He also called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take action. The Turkish head of state said he would raise the issue at the G-20 summit in Japan which is set to kick off later this month.
Shortly after his death on Monday, Morsi was buried at dawn in the presence of some of his family members in a burial that analysts believe fuels suspicions surrounding his death.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Tuesday called for an “independent and thorough” investigation into the issue.
The call angered Egypt, with the North African country’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez condemning it “in the strongest terms” on Wednesday.
Hafez described the call as a “deliberate attempt to politicize a case of natural death.”