A Giza criminal court sentenced on Tuesday 23 people to life in prison, 223 others to 15 years, 22 to three years, and acquitted 109 on various violent offences committed during the 2013 dispersal of a sit-in in Giza’s Nahda Square in 2013.

In April 2015 the prosecution referred 379 supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to court over their participation in the Nahda sit-in in July 2013.

The Nahda protest, which took place in Giza near Cairo University, was one of two major sit-ins – the other was in Cairo’s Rabaa El-Adaweya – calling for Morsi’s reinstatement.

The defendants were charged with murder, attempted murder of two policemen, rioting, terrorising people, forming an armed group, thuggery, vandalising public property, and possession of weapons.

The court has also ordered the defendants to pay compensation for vandalism; EGP 25.788 million to the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University, EGP 2.902 million to Orman Park, EGP 10.9 million to Giza governorate, and EGP 137,000 to the Giza Zoo.

The verdict can be appealed before the Court of Cassation within 60 days.

Following the deadly dispersal of the sit-ins at Rabaa and Nahda on 14 August 2013, which left hundreds killed and thousands arrested on a variety of charges, there was a wave of attacks by Morsi supporters on churches and police stations around Egypt.