61 Muslim Brotherhood members referred to military prosecution

Egypt today referred 61 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood to military prosecution over scores of violence-related charges, including targeting military institutions, in several governorates of the country.
Attorney General Hisham Barakat referred the members to military prosecution for killing a policeman and exploding natural gas pipeline among many other charges.
The defendants face charges of "forming committees within the Muslim Brotherhood, targeting military institutions, exploding natural gas pipeline in the Delta's town of Kafr el-Sheikh and train in Alexandria, setting a restaurant in Menoufia on fire and assassinating a policeman in Qalyubia," a statement said.
Earlier, 64 defendants were referred to a military tribunal over involvement in an attempt to set up a military wing of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group last month.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi passed a presidential decree that greatly expanded the scope of Egypt's military courts in October last year.
The decree allows for any civilian charged with attacking any public property, including trains, to be tried by closed-door military tribunals.

Valid for two years, the decree was passed shortly after the death of at least 30 security personnel in militant attacks in Sinai in October last year, and has been criticised by many human rights organisations.
Since Islamist ex-president Mohamed Morsi's ouster in 2013, the Egyptian government has been cracking down on the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters.

Morsi himself was sentenced to death last week along with Mohaned Badie, the supreme guide of Muslim Brotherhood along with over hundred Islamist leaders for a mass prison break during the 2011 revolution which toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.