CAIRO, Jun 14 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt’s Cairo Criminal Court adjourned Tuesday the trial of 67 defendants accused of killing the former top prosecutor Hisham Barakat to July 13.

The prosecution referred the defendants to trial early May on charges of "joining a terrorist organisation inside the country, joining an international terrorist organisation, espionage with Hamas, intended murder, destruction, possession and manufacture of explosives, criminal planning, possession of unlicensed guns and weapons, and infiltrating the borders."

There are 67 people involved in the case, 51 of whom are detained while the rest are runaways.

Barakat was killed on June 29, 2015 after a bomb targeted his motorcade. His assassination made him the most senior state official killed since militant attacks surged in Egypt in mid-2013, when former president Mohamed Mursi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, was ousted by the military following mass protests against his rule.

The prosecution’s referral order was accompanied with detailed confessions from 45 out of the 67 defendants, the public prosecution's office said in its statement then.

The statement had also mentioned that the State Security Prosecution’s investigation revealed that the defendants belong to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group and that they organised the assassination in coordination with the Palestinian movement Hamas.

The State Security prosecution is a branch of prosecution which is typically involved in cases that affect national security. 

Egypt listed the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation in December 2013 and insists it is behind the wave of militancy which has targeted security personnel since July 2013. The Brotherhood continuously denies the accusations.

Egyptian authorities have also accused Hamas, a strong ally of Mursi's regime, of supporting these militant attacks, which Hamas has repeatedly denied.