Egypt orders retrial of 152 Muslim Brotherhood members

Cairo: An Egyptian court Saturday ordered a retrial of 152 Muslim Brotherhood defendants charged with violence following the ouster of Mohamed Morsi as president in 2013, according to the state-run MENA.

The 152 accused were sentenced last March in a mass trial of 545 defendants, in which 37 of the defendants were sentenced to death and 115 others sentenced to life in prison.

The defendants were accused of attacking police stations in Mattai village in Upper Egypt's Minya province and killing an official after policemen dispersed two major sit-ins in Cairo and Giza by Morsi's supporters in August 2013, according to a Xinhua report.

They were also accused of breaking into government institutions, shooting at the police and seizing police weapons.

Many of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood members and secular activists are in prison awaiting trials related to charges of inciting violence, conspiring with foreign powers to destabilise Egypt and killing protesters.