Another mass trial set, in Egyptian prosecution killing case

Another mass trial looks set to take place in Egypt, after the state prosecutor referred 67 people to a court case over the assassination of a top prosecutor in June 2015.

Authorities have accused Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood of involvement in the killing of Hisham Barakat who died after a car bomb struck his convoy in an upscale district in east Cairo.

Sunday's statement said an investigation showed that the accused were members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood who "conspired" with militants of the Gaza-based Islamist Palestinian group Hamas.

Some were "trained in Hamas camps" where they were taught how to make bombs and target people "to create chaos and instability", the statement added.

In March, Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar said 14 members of the Muslim Brotherhood participated directly in the plan to murder Barakat.

However, the Muslim Brotherhood have denied involvement in violence that has swept the country after the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi in a military coup in 2013, who was part of the Islamist movement.

Egyptian authorities have launched a wave of arrests and killings against Muslim Brotherhood supporters and leftist opponents of the regime.

Courts have also handed out hundreds of death sentences in mass trials, which have been condemned by human rights groups.

"This plot was carried out on the orders of the Muslim Brotherhood... in close coordination with Hamas, which played a very important role in the assassination of the chief prosecutor from start to finish," Ghaffar said at the time.

Hamas also deny any involvement in the killing.

Barakat was the most senior government official to be killed since Islamic State group militants began an insurgency in northern Sinai after the overthrow of Morsi.

Barakat was seen as a staunch opponent of the Islamist opposition and had referred thousands of people to trial.

No group has claimed responsibility for his murder.