A criminal court in the northern Egyptian city of Tanta convicted 23 Muslim Brotherhood members for acts of violence that broke out in 2013 and sentenced them to life in prison on Sunday.The 23 defendants were charged with creating chaos, rioting and disturbing public peace, in violence that took place in August, 2013, days after the dispersal of two encampments set up in support of former president Mohamed Mursi.
The defendants include two members of the Muslim Brotherhood's guidance bureau, the group's highest decision-making body.
Mursi, who himself was a Brotherhood politician, was ousted in July 2013 at the hands of the military following mass protests against his rule.
His supporters expressed rejection of his ouster in two major encampments set up in different parts of Greater Cairo, which they maintained for weeks.
Violence broke out in different parts of Egypt in the period following the deadly dispersal of the encampments.
Many Brotherhood members and the majority of the group's leading figures now sit behind bars, where they are either serving time or are still on trial facing a wide range of charges.
