Bosnia: Funeral prayers held for Mohamed Morsi

BELGRADE, Serbia

Thousands attended funeral prayers held in mosques across in Bosnia and Herzegovina for Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi.

Following the noon prayer in three separate mosques in the capital Sarajevo, a large number of people attended the funeral prayers in absentia organized by the Islamic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina for Egypt's ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

Images of Morsi's were hung in the courtyard of the Hunkar Mosque.

Egyptian expatriates living in the Balkan country also attended the event.

Kenan Music, who led the prayer, shared with the congregation anecdotes about Morsi from close acquaintances of the former leader.

"He [Morsi] would come to the mosque with his wife before the morning prayer and Morsi and his wife would clean the mosque. Nobody would know about it. He would never speak of it," said Music, citing a man who reportedly shared a flat with Morsi during their studies in the U.S.

He added that Morsi's death is a great loss for the Islamic world.

In addition to the mosques in Sarajevo, funeral prayers in absentia were held in three other mosques in Zenica, Zepca, Zavidovici, Maglaj, Tesanj, Doboj and Teslic cities.

Also, a large number of people attended a funeral held for Morsi in the city of Novi Pazar, the largest city in the Sandzak region of Serbia.

Morsi, the first democratically-elected president, died on Monday after falling into a coma inside his soundproof glass cage during his trial on "espionage" charges.

Morsi, a leading member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, won Egypt's first free presidential election in 2012.

After only a year in office, however, he was ousted and imprisoned in a military coup led by then-Defense Minister and current President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.

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

*Kemal Zorlak and Haris Badzic contributed to this report from Sarajevo and Zenica, respectively.