An Islamist affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood organisation, Morsi led the Freedom and Justice Party from 2011 to 2012.
79 Facts About Mohamed Morsi
2.
Mohamed Morsi was born in El Adwah, Sharqia Governorate, before studying metallurgical engineering at Cairo University and then materials science at the University of Southern California.
3.
Mohamed Morsi became an associate professor at California State University, Northridge, from 1982 to 1985 before returning to Egypt to teach at Zagazig University.
4.
Mohamed Morsi died during trial on 17 June 2019 amid claims that he was being denied appropriate medical care while in custody.
5.
Mohamed Morsi was born in the Sharqia Governorate, in northern Egypt, of modest provincial origin, in the village of El Adwah, north of Cairo, on 8 August 1951 during the final years of the Egyptian monarchy.
6.
Mohamed Morsi's father was a farmer and his mother a housewife.
7.
Mohamed Morsi was the eldest of five brothers, and told journalists that he remembered being taken to school on the back of a donkey.
8.
Mohamed Morsi fulfilled his military service in the Egyptian Army from 1975 to 1976, serving in the chemical warfare unit.
9.
Mohamed Morsi then resumed his studies at Cairo University and earned an MS in metallurgical engineering in 1978.
10.
Mohamed Morsi received a PhD in materials science from the University of Southern California in 1982 with his dissertation on aluminium oxide.
11.
In 1985, Mohamed Morsi quit his job at CSUN and returned to Egypt, becoming a professor at Zagazig University, where he was appointed head of the engineering department.
12.
Mohamed Morsi was a lecturer at Zagazig University's engineering department until 2010.
13.
Mohamed Morsi served as a Member of Parliament from 2000 to 2005, officially as an independent candidate because the Brotherhood was technically barred from running candidates for office under President Hosni Mubarak.
14.
Mohamed Morsi was a member of the Guidance Office of the Muslim Brotherhood until the founding of the Freedom and Justice Party in 2011, at which point he was elected by the MB's Guidance Office to be the first president of the new party.
15.
Mohamed Morsi was arrested along with 24 other Muslim Brotherhood leaders on 28 January 2011.
16.
Mohamed Morsi escaped from prison in Cairo two days later.
17.
Four years later, Mohamed Morsi faced trial for his role in the prison break.
18.
Mohamed Morsi's campaign was supported by well-known Egyptian cleric Safwat Hegazi at a rally in El-Mahalla El-Kubra, the epicentre of Egyptian worker protests.
19.
Mohamed Morsi came in slightly ahead of former Mubarak-era prime minister Ahmed Shafik and his campaign was noted for the Islamist character of its events.
20.
On 24 June 2012, Mohamed Morsi was announced as the winner of the election with 51.73 percent of the vote.
21.
Mohamed Morsi said "no entity will be above the constitution" but did not spell out his vision for the army's status.
22.
Mohamed Morsi said the army's budget should be overseen by parliament but there would be a need for secrecy in specific areas.
23.
Mohamed Morsi linked the 2011 revolution to an "Islamic awakening" in the Middle East.
24.
Mohamed Morsi compared free markets to the Islamic system, but said Islam requires there to be an ethical component to ensure that the poor share in society's wealth.
25.
Mohamed Morsi was sworn in on 30 June 2012, as Egypt's first democratically elected president.
26.
Mohamed Morsi succeeded Hosni Mubarak, who left the office of the President of Egypt vacant after being forced to resign on 11 February 2011.
27.
Mohamed Morsi reconvened Parliament in its original form on 10 July 2012; this was expected to cause friction between him and the military officials who dissolved the legislature.
28.
Mohamed Morsi sought to influence the drafting of a new constitution of Egypt, favoring a constitution which protects civil rights and enshrines Islamic law.
29.
On 10 July 2012, Mohamed Morsi reinstated the Islamist-dominated parliament that was disbanded by the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt on 14 June 2012.
30.
On 12 August 2012, Mohamed Morsi asked Mohamad Hussein Tantawi, head of the country's armed forces, and Sami Hafez Anan, the Army chief of staff, to resign.
31.
Mohamed Morsi announced that the constitutional amendments passed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces restricting the president's powers would be annulled.
32.
Mohamed Morsi named Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who was then serving as chief of military intelligence, as Egypt's new defense minister.
33.
Mohamed Morsi fired two more high ranking security officials on 16 August 2012: intelligence chief Murad Muwafi the Director of the Intelligence Directorate and the commander of his presidential guards.
34.
On 27 August 2012, Mohamed Morsi named 21 advisers and aides in a slew that included three women and two Christians and a large number of Islamist-leaning figures.
35.
Mohamed Morsi appointed new governors to the 27 regions of the country.
36.
In October 2012, Mohamed Morsi's government unveiled plans for the development of a major economic and industrial hub adjoining the Suez Canal.
37.
On 19 March 2013 on a visit to India, Mohamed Morsi sought support from India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
38.
On 19 October 2012, Mohamed Morsi travelled to Egypt's northwestern Matrouh in his first official visit to deliver a speech on Egyptian unity at el-Tenaim Mosque.
39.
Mohamed Morsi did not attend the enthronement of Coptic Pope Tawadros II on 18 November 2012 at Abbasiya Cathedral, though Prime Minister Hesham Qandil did attend.
40.
On 22 November 2012, Mohamed Morsi issued a declaration which purported to protect the work of the Constituent Assembly drafting the new constitution from judicial interference.
41.
Additionally, the declaration authorized Mohamed Morsi to take any measures necessary to protect the revolution.
42.
Mohamed Morsi's statement failed to appease either the judges or citizenry dissatisfied with his decision and sparked days of protests in Tahrir Square.
43.
Mohamed Morsi's spokesman said an agreement, reached with top judicial authorities, would leave most of the president's actions subject to review by the courts, but preserve his power to protect the Constituent Assembly from being dissolved by the courts before it had finished its work.
44.
President Mohamed Morsi agreed there would be no further retrials of former officials under Hosni Mubarak, unless new evidence was presented.
45.
On 1 December 2012, the Constituent Assembly handed the draft constitution to Mohamed Morsi, who announced that a constitutional referendum would be held on 15 December 2012.
46.
On 4 December 2012, Mohamed Morsi left his presidential palace after a number of protesters broke through police cordons around the palace, with some climbing atop an armored police vehicle and waving flags.
47.
On 8 December 2012, Mohamed Morsi annulled his decree that had expanded his presidential authority and removed judicial review of his decrees, an Islamist official said, but added that the effects of that declaration would stand.
48.
Mohamed Morsi received strong support from Qatar, which has maintained long-held ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Mohamed Morsi was a member until his election.
49.
Qatar declared that it would provide Egypt with US$2 billion just as Mohamed Morsi announced the reshuffle in the cabinet on 12 August 2012.
50.
Mohamed Morsi was criticized by Egyptian analysts for attending and speaking at the rally, while the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces released a statement the day after the rally saying that its only role is to protect Egypt's borders, in an apparent ruling out of support for intervention in Syria.
51.
The government under Mohamed Morsi supported Syrian refugees living in Egypt by offering residency permits, assistance on finding employment, allowing Syrian refugee children to register in state schools and access to other public services.
52.
In October 2012, Mohamed Morsi wrote a friendly letter to then Israeli president Shimon Peres.
53.
Previously, in July 2012, Mohamed Morsi had refuted a fabricated letter.
54.
Mohamed Morsi said in his victory speech that he would honour all of Egypt's international treaties, which was thought to be a reference to Egypt's treaty with Israel.
55.
Mohamed Morsi's government condemned the Operation Pillar of Defense and called for a ceasefire.
56.
Mohamed Morsi later contended that his remarks were "taken out of context", and his exchange with a delegation headed by John McCain was made public:.
57.
Mohamed Morsi stated that "[I] cannot be against the Jewish faith or Jews or Christianity and Christians," pointing out that the Quran requires Muslims "to believe in all religions".
58.
Mohamed Morsi attended the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa from 15 to 16 July 2012; this was the first visit to Ethiopia by a sitting President of Egypt in the 17 years since the attempted assassination of Hosni Mubarak in June 1995.
59.
Later, in June 2013, politicians called by Mohamed Morsi were overheard suggesting attacking Ethiopia to stop it from building a dam on a Nile tributary.
60.
Mohamed Morsi attended the 16th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran at the end of August 2012, in a visit which had the potential to catalyze the resumption of normal relations between Egypt and member nations of the non-aligned group: as some of Egypt's diplomatic relationships with member countries had been strained since their signing of a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
61.
Mohamed Morsi made a speech against the Syrian government and called on the Syrian opposition to unite during the Syrian Civil War.
62.
Mohamed Morsi sparked controversy saying that it is an "ethical duty" to support the Syrian people against the "oppressive regime" in Damascus.
63.
Mohamed Morsi hosted the Islamic summit in Cairo with the presence of 57 leaders of Muslim nations.
64.
Mohamed Morsi awarded Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the Secretary-General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Order of the Nile, which is Egypt's highest state honor.
65.
The spokesperson of the Egyptian Armed Forces, Colonel Ahmed Ali, later denied the rumors that Mohamed Morsi was badly treated, saying that they had nothing to hide.
66.
Mohamed Morsi was to be tried in a criminal court for inciting his supporters to kill at least 10 opponents, use violence and torture protesters.
67.
The prosecutors' investigation revealed that Mohamed Morsi had asked the Republican Guard and the minister of interior to break up his opponents' sit-in but they refused, fearing a bloody result before Mohamed Morsi's aides asked his supporters to break up the sit-in with force.
68.
On 29 January 2014, Mohamed Morsi faced trial for the second time on the charge of breaking out of jail during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, after conspiring with foreign militant groups, including Hamas, to spread violent chaos throughout Egypt.
69.
In June 2016, Mohamed Morsi was given a life sentence for passing state secrets to Qatar.
70.
Mohamed Morsi was one of the defendants in the case along with two Al-Jazeera journalists who were sentenced to death in absentia.
71.
Egyptian state television announced on 17 June 2019 that Mohamed Morsi had collapsed during a court hearing on espionage charges at Cairo's Tora Prison complex, and later died suddenly, reportedly of a heart attack.
72.
Mohamed Morsi's lawyer reported that Morsi was allowed to speak for seven minutes from inside the glass box before the session was adjourned.
73.
Mohamed Morsi was buried in Cairo alongside other senior figures of the Muslim Brotherhood.
74.
Critics of the Egyptian government blamed the conditions of the trial for Mohamed Morsi's death, saying that the conditions he was held under were the cause.
75.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the Egyptian leadership for Mohamed Morsi's death, describing him as a martyr.
76.
Mada Masr reported that the Egyptian government had imposed censorship on coverage of Mohamed Morsi's death, including requiring newspapers to use a brief, identically-worded account with no reference to his presidency, nor any allegations surrounding responsibility for his death.
77.
Mohamed Morsi reportedly stated that she did not want to be referred to as "First Lady" but rather as "First Servant [of the Egyptian public]".
78.
Two of Mohamed Morsi's five children were born in California and are US citizens by birth.
79.
On his state visit to Pakistan, Mohamed Morsi was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Philosophy by National University of Sciences and Technology in Islamabad, Pakistan on 18 March 2013 in recognition of his achievements and significant contributions towards the promotion of peace and harmony in the world and strengthening of relations with the Muslim countries, especially in Pakistan.