CAIRO, Jan 14 (Aswat Masriya) - The Cairo criminal court postponed on Saturday the trial of 67 defendants accused of killing former top prosecutor general Hisham Barakat to Jan 24.

Out of the 67 defendants, 51  are imprisoned while the rest are still at large.

The trial was postponed as one of the imprisoned defendants was not present at court today.

Barakat, the most senior state official killed since militant attacks surged in Egypt in mid-2013, was killed on June 29, 2015 after a bomb targeted his motorcade.

The defendants are accused of belonging to an outlawed group, joining a militant group outside of Egypt, murder, vandalism, manufacturing and possessing explosives and using them to endanger people’s lives, as well as acquisition of weapons and ammunition intended for use in criminal activities.

The Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar said in March 2015 that the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt were behind the assassination of Barakat.  

Egypt listed the Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation in December 2013 and insists it is behind the wave of militancy which has targeted security personnel since July 2013. The Brotherhood continuously denies the accusations.

Egyptian authorities have also accused Hamas, a strong ally of former president Mohamed Mursi's regime, of supporting these militant attacks but Hamas has repeatedly denied the accusations