CAIRO: A Cairo court sentenced a police officer to 10 years in prison with labor on Tuesday in connection with the deaths of 37 Muslim Brotherhood protesters last year, judicial sources said.

Three other policemen were given one-year suspended sentences, they said. The Interior Ministry said at the time that the members and supporters of the Brotherhood had died during an attempted prison break after being suffocated by tear gas in the incident last August.

However, a legal source said the men had died from asphyxiation in the back of a crammed police van while they were being moved to a jail on the outskirts of Cairo.

The government has launched a widespread crackdown on the Brotherhood since the army toppled President Muhammad Mursi last July after mass protests against his rule.

A panel of political experts said this month that the deaths of hundreds of Brotherhood supporters at a protest camp in Cairo last August was mostly the fault of demonstrators who had provoked the security forces into opening fire.