Egypt's Morsi Likely 'more Popular' After Death

Cairo, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Jun, 2019 ) :Unpopular in power and deposed after huge protests, Egypt's ex-president Mohamed Morsi could be humanised in the eyes of many Egyptians after his death in court Monday.

"It is sad, from a strictly human point of view", a trader in central Cairo said of the former head of state, who had been imprisoned since his 2013 fall from power, and was buried on Tuesday.

"He was old and ill. Whatever one thinks of the political situation, his death while the court was in-session shows that those who judged him were not good people", the trader said, on condition of anonymity.

- 'Death symbolically important' - Morsi came to power in 2012 in elections that took place the year after a popular uprising that deposed president Hosni Mubarak, who had headed an authoritarian regime for three decades.

Spurred on by mass demonstrations against Morsi's own rule, the army ousted him on July 3, 2013 and Egypt declared the Brotherhood a "terrorist organisation".

Ever since, the government has cracked down heavily on opponents, especially on members of organisation.

The official narrative, regularly broadcast by Egyptian tv channels -- which are all behind the regime -- is that the Brotherhood are "terrorists" who harm the country's interests.

On Tuesday morning, pro-government newspapers only briefly mentioned Morsi's death, without referencing his status as a former president.

TV channels devoted most of their airtime to a visit by current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi -- Morsi's former defence minister, who ultimately toppled him before being elected head of state in 2014 -- to Belarus.

While Morsi was not a great leader for the Brotherhood, "his death will be symbolically important" and could drive radical elements of the group to take up arms against the authorities, Gerges said.