An Egyptian disciplinary court has ordered 41 judges into compulsory retirement for supporting the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, judicial sources said.
The government has implemented a harsh crackdown on Islamists and secular political opponents since July 2013, when then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi following mass protests against his rule.
The disciplinary council, headed by judge Nabil Zaki, did not immediately release the reason for its decision, but judicial sources said 31 of the judges were sent into compulsory retirement for signing a statement condemning Morsi's removal.
Another 10 were removed from their posts for joining the Judges for Egypt group which supported the Brotherhood even before Morsi's removal, the sources added.
Egyptian law prohibits judges from engaging in politics, but critics and human rights groups said the judicial disciplinary court had turned a blind eye to judges who openly supported the government of Mr Sisi, who was elected president last year.
The government said the judiciary was independent and it never intervened in its work.
"The decision is shocking and it is a massacre of the judges," one of the punished judges, Ahmed El-Khatib, said.
He made no comment about whether he supported the Brotherhood.
The judges have the right to appeal the decision.
Separately, security forces arrested 63 middle-level Brotherhood leaders who face charges of attacking police headquarters and inciting violence, Egypt's interior ministry said in a statement.
Another 13 Brotherhood supporters were arrested on suspicion of possessing arms and ammunition, it added.
The government has banned the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation and Mr Sisi said it was a threat to national security. The group says it is committed to peaceful activism.
