Turkey to hold funeral prayers for Morsi

By Bilal Acar

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) said funeral prayers in absentia will be held in mosques across the country Tuesday for former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.

Ali Erbas, head of Diyanet, will lead the prayers at Haci Bayram Mosque in Ankara, it said Monday in a statement.

Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, died Monday during a court appearance to face espionage charges.

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

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

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.