Morsi had been in court yet again, being tried on charges of espionage. Speaking from within a glass cage in which he was confined during his many court sessions, he had warned of national security concerns surrounding his desire to reveal a number of secrets when he collapsed. He died a short time later.

He had diabetes, and the harsh conditions of his imprisonment–he was often placed in solitary confinement–would not have been an ideal complement to such a medical condition. He had been held in Scorpion Prison, a special wing in Cairo's Tora Prison that critics said was not up to international prison standards. By contrast, the man he replaced as President, Hosni Mubarak, stayed in a military hospital during his various trials. He was sentenced to life in prison for various crimes in 2012 but later had the charges dropped. He is still alive.

Morsi had already been sentenced to 20 years in prison, having been convicted of ordering members of the Muslim Brotherhood to use violence to break up a protest against him; a number of people died in the fracas.

Family members oversaw his private burial, at a cemetery in eastern Cairo. Meanwhile, the United Nations supported calls for an independent investigation into his death.

Morsi, an engineer by trade, was considered by may to be an unlikely national leader. He was elected in 2012, along with a parliamentary majority belonging to the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. Together, they oversaw the implementation of a new constitution.

His reign was short. His defense minister, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, led the coup that overthrew Morsi and his government and was himself elected President in 2014, oversaw his own implementation of a new constitution, and recently was re-elected.