Egypt court upholds jail terms against 262 Brotherhood loyalists over violence

CAIRO, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's top Court of Cassation upheld on Thursday jail terms varying from three to 25 years against 262 loyalists of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group over Violence.

The defendants have been accused of committing acts of vandalism and Violence in response to the security dispersal of a sit-in in Giza against the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

The court rejected the appeals by the defendants against earlier rulings issued by Giza Criminal Court, which sentenced 17 defendants to 25 years in jail, 223 defendants to 15 years and 22 others to three years, while acquitting 115 in the same case.

The court also imposed a fine of 39 million Egyptian pounds (2.26 million U.S. dollars) against the defendants for the damage they caused to Giza Zoo, nearby Orman Botanic Garden and the opposite building of the engineering college of Cairo University.

Morsi was deposed by the military in early July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year controversial rule and his Muslim Brotherhood group, which was labelled by the new administration a few months later as a "terrorist" organization.

The 2013 security dispersal of the pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and Giza left hundreds dead and thousands arrested.

After Morsi's ouster, terror activities prevailed in Egypt, killing hundreds of policemen, soldiers and civilians, with a Sinai-based branch of the Islamic State (IS) regional militant group claiming responsibility for most of them.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian security forces killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared in Egypt following Morsi's removal.