CAIRO, June 10 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's top prosecution referred on Sunday 28 defendants, including 19 fugitives and nine in custody, to a criminal court over launching anti-state campaigns to incite protests and harm social peace and national unity.

The defendants are also accused of illegally forming a group called "the Egyptian council for change" that seeks to obstruct the state institutions, according to a statement from the prosecutor-general's office.

It added that the group "provided its elements with funds to promote its aggressive purposes, incite protests and spread false news inside and outside the country in an attempt to harm national and economic interests of the country and topple its regime."

Egypt has been suffering political turmoil and relevant security and economic challenges since mass protests led to the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 and his Islamist successor Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group has later been outlawed as a terrorist organization and faced a massive security crackdown that left hundreds dead and thousands arrested.

Since Morsi's removal, the country has been combating a wave of terror attacks that have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, as well as civilians, with a Sinai-based militant group affiliated with the regional Islamic State terrorist group claiming responsibility for most of them.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian forces have killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested thousands of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by newly re-elected President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's ouster.