Egypt’s former President, Mohammed Morsi, who was ousted by the army in 2013, has died in court, state TV says.
A top figure in the now-banned Islamist movement Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi collapsed in a cage after speaking at a hearing on charges of espionage.
Morsi, who was 67, had been in custody since being ousted following mass protests a year after he took office.
Officials then launched a crackdown on his and Muslim Brotherhood supporters.
Morsi’s hearing in the capital, Cairo, was related to charges of espionage emanating from suspected contacts with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
He collapsed moments after addressing the court from a cage some defendants are kept in during sessions, Egypt’s public prosecutor said, adding that a medical report showed no apparent recent injuries on Morsi’s body.
Profile: Mohammed Morsi
Egypt country profile
For a long time, there have been concerns over the former leader’s prison conditions. Last October his youngest son, Abdullah, told AP news agency that his father was being held under constant solitary confinement and denied treatment for serious conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes.
Five months earlier, Abdullah said in a Washington Post op-ed that the Egyptian authorities were “doing this on purpose, since they want to see him dead ‘from natural causes’ as soon as possible”.