World Bulletin/News Desk

 An Egyptian court on Thursday slapped 41 Muslim Brotherhood members with jail terms of varying length for committing "acts of violence," a judicial source has said.

The Assiut criminal court jailed two people for 15 years each, three people for ten years each, and 23 people for five years each for committing "acts of violence" in the southern province in August of last year.

The court slapped seven others with three-year jail terms and six with one-year terms on similar charges.

The court also acquitted 60 defendants, including 12 Brotherhood leaders.

The charges relate to violence that shook the province in the summer of last year following the violent dispersal of two major protest camps in Cairo set up by supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

Hundreds of pro-Morsi protesters were killed and thousands injured in the dispersal.

Meanwhile, another Cairo court acquitted 30 supporters of Morsi of violence-related charges, a judicial source has said.

The court cleared the defendants of accusations that they had possessed weapons and explosives outside the Cairo headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood group in June of last year, the source said.

Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, was ousted by the military in July of last year following massive opposition protests against his rule.

Ever since, the Egyptian authorities have maintained a harsh crackdown on Morsi's supporters, detaining thousands and killing hundreds.

Late last year, the army-backed government branded the Muslim Brotherhood – of which Morsi is a leading member – a "terrorist" group.