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Egypt's prosecutor general Hesham Barakat ordered Tuesday four police officers to be remanded in custody over charges of killing 36 members of Muslim Brotherhood last August, state TV reported.
The Interior Ministry said the Islamists died of suffocation of teargas fired by the security forces while being transferred to a jail.
Armed clashes broke out between the security forces and militants, who intercepted and attacked police vehicles carrying detainees affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood to Abou Zaabal Prison in Qalyubiya governorate. Several militants were shot dead in confrontations.
The suspects said they were in a state of self-defense, and they fired the tear gas to prevent the prisoners to escape.
While one of the prisoners told the prosecutor that the van was overloaded, and it stopped many times which triggered clashes with the security forces.
Seven officers have been investigated, three of them were released, and the other four were ordered four days in custody, Ahram added.
Ahram quoted a security source as saying that a total of 49 detainees died in the incident.
Egypt witnessed nationwide clashes between supporters of Morsi and the security forces after the latter dispersed two major pro- Morsi sit-ins in Cairo and Giza on Aug.14. Over 800 people have been killed across the country and more than 2,000 Islamists have been detained.
