[JURIST] An Egyptian court on Monday ordered the detention of Alaa Abdel-Fattah [Twitter feed, in Arabic], one of one of Egypt’s most prominent pro-democracy activists, at the start of his retrial for breaking a law on demonstrations. Abdel-Fattah was convicted [JURIST report] in June for organizing an unauthorized demonstration and assaulting a police officer in November 2013. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison but was granted a retrial in August after a mass hunger strike by non-Islamist demonstrators. He was released [JURIST report] on bail the following month. Abdel-Fattah comes from a prominent family of activists. One day prior to his detention, his sister Sanaa Seif was imprisoned [Al Jazeera report] for three years, also for breaking the demonstrations law.

The country’s law banning unauthorized protests was passed by by interim President Adly Mansour [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] in November 2013 and has been criticized by several advocacy groups as an impediment to the right to freely assemble. Since the law was passed, Egypt has detained numerous demonstrators, especially those affiliated with ousted former president Mohammad Morsi [BBC backgrounder] and his Muslim Brotherhood [party website] political party. Political conflict in Egypt has been ongoing since the 2011 revolution [JURIST backgrounder]. In November 2011 the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) voiced concern [JURIST report] about human rights violations in Egypt, specifically with respect to the military trial and jailing of a Abdel-Fattah.