Erdogan to attend funeral prayer in absentia for Morsi

By Sibel Kurtoglu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will attend the funeral prayer in absentia for former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Tuesday.

"A funeral prayer in absentia for Mohamed Morsi, who we learnt passed away yesterday, will be held following the afternoon prayer in Istanbul’s Fatih Mosque. I will also attend funeral prayer in abstention for our martyr Morsi," Erdogan said in a Twitter post.

Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, died Monday during a court appearance on Monday.

A leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood group, he won the country’s first free presidential election in 2012.

After only one year in office, however, he was ousted and imprisoned in a bloody military coup led by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt's then defense minister and current president.

At the time of his death, Morsi faced a host of legal charges, which he along with numerous human rights groups and independent observers said were politically motivated.