CAIRO

Egyptian prosecution authorities late Tuesday referred 145 people to a military tribunal for suspected involvement in two high-profile assassination attempts last year, according to a local judicial source.

"Prosecutor-General Nabil Sadek referred 145 people to the military judicial authorities," the source, speaking anonymously as he was not authorized to talk to media, told Anadolu Agency.

The defendants, he added, had been charged with involvement in recent attempts on the lives of Deputy Prosecutor-General Zakaria Abdel-Aziz and former Grand Mufti of the Republic Ali Gomaa.

The source said the number of people referred to military prosecutors in connection with the two cases was expected to rise.

The suspects, according to the same source, face charges of "membership in a banned organization that aims to disrupt state institutions", attempted murder and possession of explosives.

In August of last year, Gomaa, Egypt’s former grand mufti, survived an assassination attempt in western Cairo. The following month, Abdel-Aziz survived a car-bomb attack in the capital’s eastern New Cairo district.

Over the past two years, attacks on officials and security personnel have become increasingly frequent in Egypt, especially in the volatile Sinai Peninsula.

Local and international NGOs, for their part, have voiced concern about Egypt’s longstanding practice of referring civilians to military trials.

Abolition of the practice had been a main demand of protesters during Egypt’s 2011 popular uprising, which forced autocratic President Hosni Mubarak to step down after three decades in power.

Reporting by Mustafa Eid; Writing by Mahmoud Barakat