Members of the Muslim Brotherhood and supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi flee from tear gas and rubber bullets fired by riot police during clashes, on a bridge leading to Rabba el Adwia Square where they are camping, in Cairo August 14, 2013 (Photo: Reuters)
Over a thousand members of the Muslim Brotherhood have been referred by prosecutors to a criminal court for storming two police stations in Minya governorate last August.
The suspects are charged of storming Al-Adwa and Matay police stations, located in Upper Egypt.
The events led to the death of deputy sheriff Mostafa Ragab El-Atar at the Al-Adwa station, along with injuries to four other police personnel, according to the prosecutor's statement.
The attackers also looted the stations' weapons and smuggled out prisoners.
The stations were stormed on 14 August, the same day that two major sit-ins in favour of pro-Islamist President Mohamed Morsi were violently dispersed in Cairo, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries.
Minya is one of several Egyptian governorates that witnessed violence from Morsi's supporters in the immediate aftermath of the bloody dispersal. Forty-one people were killed in Minya on that day in clashes between police and angry locals, with six of dead policemen.
Christian properties and churches were also stormed, ransacked and torched during the clashes, as Morsi supporters blamed the Christian minority for the dispersal and subsequent crackdown on members of the Islamist group.
Amnesty issued a statement shortly after the dispersal blaming the Egyptian police for failing to protect Christian properties and stating that Christians were 'scapegoated' for the dispersals.
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