Erdogan says ex-president Mursi was ‘killed’

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said his close ally Mohamed Mursi was "killed" and accused Egyptian authorities of failing to intervene to save the ex-president.

"Mursi was struggling on the floor in the courtroom for 20 minutes. Authorities unfortunately did not intervene to save him," Erdogan said during a televised speech in Istanbul. "Mursi was killed, he did not die of natural causes."

Erdogan forged close ties with Mursi, Egypt’s first civilian president and a prominent Muslim Brotherhood member. But Ankara’s relations with Cairo ties deteriorated after the Egyptian military, then led by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, ousted Mursi in 2013. Sisi then became president.

Erdogan has sharply denounced the military takeover in Egypt and called it a "coup". On Wednesday, he said he would follow up on the process related to Mursi’s death. "We will do whatever is needed for Egypt to be tried in international courts."

The attorney general’s office in Egypt has said that Mursi was "transported immediately to the hospital", where medics pronounced him dead -- a version confirmed by a judicial source.