Egypt's Court of Cassation overturned on Tuesday death sentences and ordered a retrial for four defendants accused of belonging to a terrorist cell in Tanta and Alexandria.

The court also overturned 10 to 15-year prison sentences for eight other defendants in the same case.

A Cairo criminal court had convicted the 12 defendants in 2016, and one defendant was acquitted.

The defendants were charged for crimes committed between August 2013 – when security forces dispersed a sit-in protesting the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi – and March 2014.

The defendants stood trial for forming an illegal organisation, joining a terrorist group, possessing weapons and plotting to attack army and police personnel.