Ex-Egypt President Morsi spending 7th Ramadan in jail

The family of Egypt’s first democratically elected President, Mohamed Morsi, on Sunday said he is seeing in the holy month of Ramadan while in solitary confinement.

Morsi has been behind bars since his ousting in a bloody military coup in 2013, making this his seventh Ramadan behind bars.

He is currently being held in complete isolation, his family warned, adding this is a “deliberate … blackout on the nature and conditions of his detention.”

His son, Osama, is also being held in jail and this will be his third Ramadan while in detention. He is being held in solitary confinement as a result of his defence of his father and the constitutional legitimacy of his presidency.

READ: UAE funded sabotage groups in Morsi-era

The family called on the international community and rights groups to highlight the Egyptian authorities’ human rights abuses.

Egypt provided no response to the family’s statement, however the government regularly denies that prisoners are badly treated or discriminated against on political grounds.