CAIRO, Jun 14 (Aswat Masriya) - Fifty-eight people were referred to the military prosecutor on Sunday for carrying out "terrorist operations" within Giza governorate, the office of Egypt's top prosecutor said.

The defendants formed "a secret terrorist organisation," the prosecutor general said in a statement. 

An investigation cited by the prosecution said leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood who fled Egypt for Turkey and Qatar coordinated with middle-ranking Brotherhood figures in Giza, agreeing to "escalate" their "terrorist activities inside the country" by carrying out assassinations of policemen, army personnel and judges. 

The purported "terrorist" operations are said to have been carried out between August 2013 and October 2014, starting after the dispersal of two camps set up in support of ousted president Mohamed Mursi.

Camps were set up to demonstrate support for Mursi's administration in Rabaa al-Adaweya and al-Nahda squares in Cairo and Giza, respectively in late June 2013 and were maintained following his ouster on July 3 and until their forcible dispersal on August 14, 2013.   

Militant attacks in Egypt have surged since July 2013, with most attacks targeting security forces in North Sinai. 

The prosecutor's statement said that 37 of the defendants are in custody while the rest are at large. 

The 58 defendants are facing military prosecution as per a law issued by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in October of last year. 

The new law refers crimes committed against the state's public and "vital" facilities to the military judiciary.

The law, criticised by human rights organisations for expanding the jurisdiction of military tribunals on civilians, was passed shortly after the death of at least 33 security personnel in militant attacks in Sinai on October 24.