CAIRO, Sept 13 (Aswat Masriya) – A criminal court in Cairo sentenced six Muslim Brotherhood supporters to 10 years in prison on charges of illegal assembly.

The incident goes back to the events following the dispersal of protesters in the Rabaa al-Adaweya and Nahda squares in August 2013. Violent clashes took place in the vicinity of a police station in Nasr City, in eastern Cairo.

The prosecutor general accused the defendants of committing “assembly, inciting riots, display of power and threating to use violence in a way that disturbs public peace.”

The Rabaa and Nahda encampments were started in late June 2013 to show solidarity with the administration of former president Mohamed Mursi.

They were maintained for weeks following his ouster in July 2013 after mass protests against his rule. 

The dispersals left hundreds of protesters dead in what was described by Human Rights Watch as "the most serious incident of mass unlawful killings in modern Egyptian history."

Since Mursi's ouster, Muslim Brotherhood leaders and members have often found themselves behind bars where they either serve time or await trial verdicts.