Erdoğan to attend martyred Mursi’s funeral prayer

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is set to attend Egypt’s “martyred” former President Mohammed Mursi’s funeral prayer that is scheduled to be held in absentia today across Turkey.

Mursi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, died Monday during a court appearance to face espionage charges.

Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) said funeral prayers in absentia will be held in mosques across the country Tuesday for former Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi.

Ali Erbaş, head of Diyanet, will lead the prayers at Hacı Bayram Mosque in Ankara, it said Monday in a statement.

A leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood group, Mursi won the country’s first free presidential election in 2012.

Following only one year in office, however, he was ousted and imprisoned in a bloody military coup led by Egypt's then defense minister and current president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

At the time of his death, Mursi faced a host of legal charges which he, along with numerous human rights groups and independent observers, said were politically motivated.