An Egyptian military court sentenced on Thursday hundreds of supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group to jail terms of up to 25 years, a judicial source said.
Some 418 people were sentenced over convictions of committing various violent crimes in the governorate of Minya on the back of the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
The defendants were charged with "sabotaging public, judicial and police buildings" following the deadly dispersal of two pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo more than one month after his ouster.
The court handed 249 defendants terms of life in prison in absentia, while sentencing 50 others who were present in court to between two and 10 years in prison. The defendants were accused of storming a provincial police station in Minya.
The court sentenced 101 others to life in prison, also in absentia, over the storming and burning of the government telecommunications centre in the governorate. Eighteen others who were present in court were given 10-year sentences on the same charges.
According to Egyptian law, defendants sentenced in absentia automatically receive retrials when they turn themselves in.
Egypt's government has banned the Muslim Brotherhood, declared it a terrorist organisation and tried thousands of its members after Morsi's removal, though the Brotherhood has insisted that it is a peaceful movement.
In October 2014, Egypt expanded the jurisdiction of military courts to try civilians accused of attacking state facilities or blocking roads, following two deadly assaults that killed dozens of security forces in the Sinai Peninsula.
Military tribunals in Egypt have been slammed by rights activists for their harsh and swift verdicts.
