CAIRO (AFP) - The largest trial in Egypt's history begins on Saturday when more than 1,200 supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi face charges of violence during an August police crackdown, judicial sources said.

Among the defendants in the trial, to be held in Minya, south of the capital, will be the supreme guide of Morsi's now-banned Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, the sources said on Friday.

The alleged attacks on individuals and public property are said to have taken place in southern Egypt in August, after security forces broke up two Cairo protest camps set up by Morsi supporters demanding his reinstatement.

Hundreds of people died in the assault on those camps and in subsequent clashes that day.

Amnesty International says at least 1,400 people were killed in those clashes and in violence since then, while thousands more have been arrested.

Morsi, who was deposed on July 3, is himself is on trial in three different cases, including one for inciting the killing of protesters outside a presidential palace during his tumultuous one year in power.