Funeral prayers for Egypt's Mohamed Morsi held worldwide

In the wake of his death on Monday, funeral prayers for former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi are being held in absentia by thousands worldwide. 

From Turkey, Palestine, Afghanistan and Syria to Pakistan, the Netherlands, New York and Australia, mosques and community centres have hosted mourners lamenting the death of Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected leader, who collapsed during a court hearing in Cairo.

During the prayer service in Istanbul, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the Egyptian government for Morsi’s death, referring to the former Egyptian president as a “martyr”. Erdogan openly questioned the causes of Morsi's death.

The Muslim Association of Britain called for mosques across the UK to hold funeral prayers for the former president.

There was also a call to hold a vigil outside the Egyptian embassy in London on Friday evening.

Not all the calls from Morsi's sympathisers were heeded, however, with an event in Gaza on Wednesday noticeably empty of mourners.

Meanwhile, authorities in the occupied West Bank and Jordan clamped down on funeral prayers being held in Nablus and Amman, according to reports.

In the hours following Morsi’s death, the Egyptian government ramped up security presence on the streets, declaring a state of alert. 

Armoured vehicles and riot police were also sent to Morsi’s home village in an attempt to prevent funeral prayers and political mobilisation.

Morsi collapsed while addressing a judge during a court session on Monday. 

His body was immediately transferred to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to the public prosecutor. Morsi was buried in a discreet ceremony in eastern Cairo with only a handful of family members present.

Morsi came to power following the 2011 popular revolution that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, only to be removed from the presidency and jailed in a 2013 military coup led by then-defence minister, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.