EU envoy given access to deposed Egypt leader Mursi

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Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Egypt's rulers have allowed an EU envoy to meet Mohamed Mursi, the first time an outsider is known to have had access to the deposed president since the military overthrew him and jailed him a month ago.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton held two hours of "in depth" discussions with Mursi late on Monday, her spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said on Twitter. Kocijancic did not say where the talks had taken place.

Mursi has been held incommunicado since the military removed him from power on July 3. Egypt's authorities say he is being investigated for charges including murder, stemming from a 2011 jailbreak when he escaped detention during protests against former autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Ashton, Europe's top diplomat, has been shuttling between Egypt's rulers and the Muslim Brotherhood to try to pull the country back from more bloodshed as one of the only outsiders that is accepted by both sides as a potential mediator.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/07/30/uk-egypt-protests-idUKBRE96T09V20130730

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1. Egypt's deposed president Morsi is safe and well, confirms EU's top diplomat

The EU's top diplomat, Lady Ashton, has confirmed that Mohamed Morsi is safe and well after a two-hour meeting with Egypt's overthrown president – his first disclosed contact with the outside world since he was arrested by soldiers and held incommunicado in an unknown location on 3 July.

The EU's Catherine Ashton, a Labour peer, said that Morsi was aware of events going on outside, and that Egypt's army had freely agreed to their meeting. But Ashton said she did not know where he was being held – implying that the Egyptian authorities had made sure she could not see the route by which she arrived at the meeting. It had previously been suggested that Morsi was being held either inside a military prison, or at one of Cairo's several presidential palaces – or at the city's Tora prison, where Morsi's predecessor Hosni Mubarak is already being held.

"We had a friendly, open and very frank discussion for the two hours I saw him," said Ashton.

"I don't know where he is – but I saw the facilities he has and we had a warm discussion, because as you know I've met with him many times before. I sent him many wishes from people here and he sent many wishes back – and of course I tried to let his family know that he is well."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/30/morsi-ashton-muslim-brotherhood-egypt