Egypt: ‘Fake’ photo of Morsi circulating on social media

Egyptian activists have circulated a shocking photo of the ousted President Mohamed Morsi which they say is how he now looks like after spending five years in solitary confinement.

The photo, which went viral on Wednesday, was reported to have been taken from inside Morsi’s cell.

According to the activists, Morsi appeared with signs of fatigue and sickness and looked like he had lost lots of weight, contrary to his last appearance in court.

Cauliflower ear, also known as perichondrial hematoma or wrestler's ear, "a deformity of the ear caused by trauma. Cauliflower ear occurs when blood pools in your pinna after it's been hit or struck"

And that is former president Morsi pic.twitter.com/gE3Zi3qZcH

— Kareem AL-Shatlawy $8 (@kimzawy) November 21, 2018

His son, Ahmed, was later quoted as saying that the photo was “baseless”, adding that it was published by “oppressors”, referring to the country’s incumbent government.

Morsi has been sentenced to an “irrevocable” 45 years in prison after being charged with “inciting violence and communicating with foreign countries”.

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He was ousted from power in July 2013 in a bloody coup which saw the current President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi take control of the country and tighten the military’s grip over it. Morsi had been Egypt’s first ever freely elected president.

Members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood party have since been jailed in what rights groups have said is the government’s efforts to quash dissent and silence the opposition. The group has now been outlawed after being designated a “terrorist organisation”.