A top Egyptian appeals court overturned on Sunday an earlier court ruling placing 296 people, including leading members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group, on a terrorism list.

The decision in August 2017 had added members and supporters of the once-ruling group to a terrorism list for three years. They faced violence-related charges including forming a military arm of the Brotherhood, financing violence and targeting police, the army and judiciary in violent attacks.

They include Mahmoud Ezzat, the Brotherhood's deputy supreme guide who fled Egypt in 2013 amid a government crackdown on the group, and Ibrahim Mounir, the Brotherhood's secretary-general in London.

The Court of Cassation ordered on Tuesday that the decision against all those involved in the case be re-heard by a lower criminal court after accepting appeals by 219 of the defendants.

This means they will temporarily be removed from the list until the court issues its decision, which the defendants can appeal later.

Individuals put on the terrorism list are generally subjected to a travel ban and an asset freeze.

Egypt designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation in late 2013, months after the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the group.