Health of ousted, jailed Egypt president worsening: Son

The health of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted and imprisoned in a 2013 military coup, is deteriorating, Morsi’s son said late Thursday. 

On Facebook, Ahmed Morsi, eldest son of the former president, said Egyptian prison officials “insist on not providing my father -- who has remained in prison for four-and-a-half years -- with needed medical care despite his deteriorating health”. 

Meanwhile, Morsi’s youngest son, Abdullah, has called on the authorities to transfer his 66-year-old father to a private hospital so that he might undergo surgery for an eye problem caused by diabetes. 

At a Wednesday court hearing, a judge ordered that Morsi undergo a medical examination to be carried out at his own expense. 

Morsi is currently serving out a 20-year jail sentence for “killing protesters” in 2013. 

The former president faces a raft of additional charges, ranging from “jailbreak” to “espionage”. 

Morsi, along with a host of co-defendants, has consistently denied the charges against him, while many independent observers say the accusations are politically motivated. 

A leader of Egypt’s now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group, Morsi became the country’s first-ever freely-elected president in mid-2012. 

One year later, however, he was ousted by Egypt’s military, which killed hundreds of his supporters and threw tens of thousands behind bars.