Egypt's public prosecutor charged 200 suspected Islamist militants on Saturday with "founding, leading and joining a terrorist organization" and launching bomb and rocket attacks across the country, according to the Associated Press.
The accused belong to the group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, or Supporters of Jerusalem, a group that has claimed some of the deadliest attacks of the last nine months and is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the AP reported.
The prosecutor's statement said 102 of those charged were in government custody with the rest on the run, according to the AP.
Militant violence has spiraled in the Sinai Peninsula, Cairo and other cities since the army toppled Islamist president Mohamed Mursi last July after mass protests against his rule, the AP reported.
The army-backed government accuses Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood of perpetrating violence despite the group's commitment to non-violence, according to the AP.
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who led Mursi's ousting and is widely expected to win a presidential election this month, has said the Brotherhood would cease to exist during his presidency, the AP reported.
The prosecutor's statement said the charges related to 51 attacks that killed 40 policemen and 15 civilians, including a car bomb at a security compound in central Cairo in January and an attempt to kill the interior minister in September, according to the AP. According to government figures, around 500 people have been killed in such attacks, mostly policemen and soldiers.
Saturday's statement called Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis "the most dangerous terrorist organization" and said it had collaborated with al-Qaeda and Palestinian group Hamas, the AP reported. The statement also said investigations of the suspects showed Mursi had struck a deal with the group to refrain from attacks during his presidency in exchange for pardoning any members of the group.
Mursi, in government custody since his ousting, is charged in several cases including one in which he is accused of conspiring with Hamas to break out of jail in 2011 during the uprising against Hosni Mubarak, according to the AP.
Foreign governments and human rights groups have expressed alarm over the previous Egyptian court sentencing of more than 1,000 Brotherhood supporters to death in two cases this past year on charges including inciting violence that followed Mursi's overthrow.
