Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi died on Monday in a Cairo hospital after fainting during a session in court, judicial and security sources said.

“He was speaking before the judge for 20 minutes then became very animated and fainted. He was quickly rushed to the hospital where he later died,” a judicial source said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a strong ally of the Islamist president during his brief tenure as Egypt’s leader, paid tribute to Morsi and called him a “martyr”.

Mursi, a top figure in the Muslim Brotherhood who was the first democratically elected president in Egypt's modern history, had been in jail since he was toppled by the military in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.

State television said Mursi, who was 67, was in court for a hearing on charges of espionage emanating from suspected contacts with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Mursi was serving a 20-year prison sentence for a conviction arising from the killing of protesters during demonstrations in 2012 and a life sentence for espionage.

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