CAIRO, Aug 18 (Aswat Masriya) - A Minya military court handed sentences varying from two years to life-time imprisonment to 418 people on Thursday on charges of violence in Minya during the dispersal of the Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins in 2013.

The court sentenced 249 people to lifetime imprisonment in absentia, and punished 50 people with sentences ranging from two to 10 years on charges of storming a police station.   

Another 101 people were also handed life time imprisonment sentences, and 18 more were sentenced to 10 years in prison, for allegedly storming and burning a Telecom Central in Deir Mawas, in Minya.

Public prosecution had referred the defendants to military court last May, and charged them of joining a banned group and destroying public institutions during the dispersal of the Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins.

The dispersal of Rabaa al-Adaweya sit in dates back to August 2013. The encampment had protested the military ouster of the elected president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, after mass protests against his rule.

Rabaa’s dispersal saw the killing of at least 1,150 demonstrators, according to Human Rights Watch in a 2014 report which said that it “probably amounts to crime against humanity”.

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. 

Since Mursi's ouster, Egyptian authorities have led a crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood leaders and prominent figures, who have often found themselves behind bars or facing court cases. 

The state's National Council for Human Rights said in March 2014 that the death toll of the dispersal was 632, including eight security personnel.