CAIRO — Egypt on Wednesday sentenced 35 alleged Muslim Brotherhood members to life in prison for allegedly forming "terrorist cells" to attack security forces and state institutions.

The Sohag Criminal Court in central Egypt sentenced another 155 defendants to three to 15 years on similar charges, including plotting to kill public figures and security officials, and joining an outlawed group, a reference to the Brotherhood. The verdict can be appealed, and 124 suspects who remain at large will be re-tried once they are apprehended.

Also on Wednesday, an Egyptian military court sentenced four suspected Muslim Brotherhood members to life imprisonment on terror-related charges, a defense lawyer said. Two of the suspects were sentenced in absentia and they will be re-tried once they are apprehended, Khaled el-Masry told The Associated Press.

The court sentenced two others to 10 years each and acquitted 13, he said. The charges include plotting militant attacks against the security personnel and bombing malls in Cairo in addition to belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood group, he said.

The Brotherhood won a series of free elections after Egypt's 2011 uprising, and a senior Brotherhood figure, Mohammed Morsi, was elected president in 2012. A year later, the military overthrew Morsi amid mass protests against his rule. Authorities have since branded the Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

Egypt has for years struggled to contain an Islamic insurgency in the turbulent Sinai region. It has carried out military operations there that, it says, have killed hundreds of militants and soldiers. The country is also facing a growing number of attacks in its Western Desert, along the porous border with Libya that authorities contend is used by both militants and smugglers.

In February, Egypt launched a massive security operation in Sinai, the Nile Delta and the Western Desert to target "terrorist and criminal elements and organizations."</s>Egypt has sentenced 35 alleged Muslim Brotherhood members to life in prison for allegedly forming "terrorist cells" to attack security forces and state institutions.

The Sohag Criminal Court in central Egypt sentenced another 155 defendants to three to 15 years in prison on similar charges, including plotting to kill public figures and security officials, and joining an outlawed group, a reference to the Brotherhood.

Wednesday's verdict can be appealed, and 124 suspects who remain at large will be re-tried once they are apprehended.

The Brotherhood won a series of free elections after Egypt's 2011 uprising, and a senior Brotherhood figure, Mohammed Morsi, was elected president in 2012.

A year later, the military overthrew Morsi amid mass protests against his rule. Authorities have since branded the Brotherhood a terrorist organization.</s>CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court on Sunday upheld the death penalty for 20 men charged with killing policemen in the violence that followed the military's ousting of an Islamist president in 2013, while changing the sentence for many others to hefty prison terms.

 The verdicts can again be appealed.

 The case involves 156 people on trial and is known as the "Kerdasa incident" in reference to the pro-Muslim Brotherhood neighborhood where the violence took place in the Giza province adjacent to Cairo.

 Islamist gunmen fired rocket propelled grenades at a police station in Kerdasa on Aug. 14, 2013, and slit a policeman's throat before burning the building down, hours after security forces violently dispersed two protest camps, killing hundreds.

 "The crimes the defendants are accused of were committed by a group charged with carrying them out," said Judge Sherine Fahmy before reading out the verdict.

 "Some committed murder themselves, others stole, or burned, some guarded the road so the assailants could commit their crimes, and some blocked the roads to prevent help from coming, some incited citizens against the military and police using mosque speakers and microphones on the streets. If it were not for all of that, these crimes would not have been committed."

 The court also sentenced 80 people to life in prison and 34 to 15 years in jail. One minor was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 21 people were acquitted.

 A different court had initially sentenced 183 people to death, including 28 in absentia, and a minor to jail for 10 years in 2015 for the murder of 11 policemen. Those sentenced in absentia are automatically retried if they hand themselves in.

 The defendants appealed and the Court of Cassation, Egypt's highest criminal and civil court, ordered a retrial of the 156 who are in custody. Egypt's legal system allows the defendants a second and final appeal following Sunday's verdict.

 Egypt's military, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, ousted former president Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2013 following mass protests against his rule. Sisi was elected president a year later.

 Supporters of Mursi and the Brotherhood, the world's oldest Islamist movement, staged two sit-ins in protest until security forces broke them up on Aug. 14, killing hundreds and jailing thousands.

 

 (Reporting by Haitham Ahmed; Additional reporting by Ahmed Tolba; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Mark Potter)
The Sohag Criminal Court in Egypt sentences 35 alleged Muslim Brotherhood members to life imprisonment and imposes prison terms on 155 more. Separately, a military court sentences four more to life imprisonment, imposes prison terms on two others, and acquits 13.