Sisi: I stood by Morsi and did not conspire against him

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said that he stood by the late President Mohamed Morsi during the Muslim Brotherhood’s rule.

Al-Sisi said that standing by Morsi was standing with Egypt, stressing that if he conspired against him, he would have conspired against Egypt.

He continued: “Before the Brotherhood came to power, I told the military council that we either have a country with the Brotherhood or will have no country, you choose.”

“God inspired me at the time with honesty, inspiration and the ability to distinguish, and indeed the Brotherhood came to rule, then their real and direct challenge to the country and the distortion of the army occurred for a year and a half, including killing citizens in the events of Mohamed Mahmoud, Maspero, Port Said and the Tahrir Complex, and then fighting broke out in Egypt in which we could have lost Egypt and the army,” he added.

Al-Sisi was the Minister of Defence in 2013 when he ousted Morsi in a bloody military coup. Morsi was detained and brought to trial on charges of spying for foreign countries, before he died in custody in June 2019. His family and human rights organisations accused the Egyptian authorities of deliberately practicing medical negligence against him despite the deterioration of his health in the months that preceded his death.

Following the coup, the Muslim Brotherhood was outlawed in Egypt.

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Former Egypt President Morsi dies in court – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]