CAIRO, June 10 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian court upheld on Monday jail terms from five to 25 years against 315 defendants, mostly loyalists of the currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, over acts of violence and sabotage in 2013, official MENA news agency reported.

The country's top Court of Cassation refused the defendants' appeal for a retrial and upheld the previous rulings issued by a criminal court.

The prosecution charged the defendants with riot, violence and sabotage in response to the security crackdown on pro-Brotherhood sit-ins in Giza and Cairo in mid-August 2013.

The sit-ins were held following the popularly-backed military removal of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year controversial rule and his Brotherhood group.

Egypt's post-Morsi leadership considers the Brotherhood the source of all evil and terrorism.

Most Brotherhood leaders and loyalists who did not flee the country after Morsi's ouster are currently in jail, including Morsi himself and the group's top leader Mohamed Badie, over charges varying from terrorism, violence, sabotage, jailbreak to espionage.