215 members of the outlawed Egypt Muslim Brotherhood has been referred to court trial on charges of forming a militant group, the latest move in a sustained crackdown by authorities on Islamist.
Egypt’s Public Prosecutor, Hesham Barakat, said in a statement on Sunday, that the 215 defendants were charged with forming a militant group called “Helwan Brigades”.
Egypt has mounted one of the biggest crackdowns in its modern history on the Brotherhood, following the army’s overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, the country’s first freely-elected president, in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
The prosecution’s investigation said that the group was responsible for killing at least six policemen and wounding several civilians and policemen in separate attacks in Cairo.
The group also possessed weapons and ammunition.
125 members of the group are in detention and Barakat ordered the arrest of those at large.
Thousands of Brotherhood supporters have been arrested and put on mass trials in a campaign, which Human Rights groups said “it shows the government is systematically repressing opponents”.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who as army chief toppled Mursi, described the Brotherhood as a major security threat, but the movement said it was committed to peaceful activism.
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Ismailia, Egypt by Hassan al-Banna in March 1928 as an Islamist religious, political, and social movement.
The group spread to other Muslim countries but has its largest, or one of its largest organisations in Egypt.
For many years, it has been the largest, best-organised, and most disciplined political opposition force, despite a succession of government crackdowns in 1948, 1954, 1965 after alleged plots of assassination and overthrow were uncovered.
Following the 2011 Revolution, the group was legalised and in April 2011, it launched a civic political party called the Freedom and Justice Party (Egypt) to contest elections.
