Egypt sentences 683 Muslim Brotherhood members to death

An Egyptian court Monday sentenced 683 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death for assaulting and killing police personnel last year.

The Minya Criminal Court accused the defendants, including Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie, of involvement in killing policemen in Al-Adwa town in the Upper Egyptian province, Xinhua reported.

The same court sentenced 37 Brotherhood members and supporters to death and gave life imprisonment to 492 others in a similar case related to last year's violence in the town of Matay in Minya.

Following the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July last year, his supporters have been holding continual protests against the army-installed government.

In December last year, the authorities declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation.

The authorities broke up Morsi supporters' main sit-ins in Cairo after his removal in August, and more than 1,000 people were killed in an ensuing crackdown.

More than 15,000 Islamists, mostly Muslim Brotherhood members, have been jailed while hundreds have been sentenced to death after speedy trials.