An Egyptian court has handed down a 15-year jail term to prominent pro-democracy campaigner Alaa Abdel-Fattah and 24 others on charges of organising an unauthorised protest.
It was the latest such conviction for a pro-democracy activist who had been prominent in the 2011 ouster of former president Hosny Mubarak.
Abdel-Fattah was also charged with attacking a police officer and stealing his walkie-talkie, inciting rioting, and damaging public property during a protest he staged in November against the referral of civilians to military courts.
Abdel-Fattah's sister Mona Seif wrote on her Facebook page that the judgment was delivered in absentia with the waiting defendants prevented from entering the courtroom, and they were then taken into custody by police at the court complex.
Abdel-Fattah played a major role in the 2011 uprising that forced longtime president Hosny Mubarak to step down.
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In December, three other leading pro-democracy activists were sentenced to three years in prison each for holding an unauthorised protest.
In November, the military-backed government adopted a controversial law that required organisers to give three days notice to police before holding demonstrations.
It also granted law enforcement agents the power to ban any rally deemed a threat to public safety.
Critics say the law is aimed at muzzling political dissent.
Meanwhile a court extended the detention of a hunger-striking Al-Jazeera journalist for 45 days despite fears for his health.
Abdullah Elshamy was arrested in August in the aftermath of a Muslim Brotherhood protest in Cairo, but has not yet been referred to trial.
He has been on hunger strike for nearly five months in protest.
Amnesty International and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have called for his release amid ongoing concern about media freedom in the country.
The CPJ says 16 journalists are currently detained in Egypt and six have been killed since Morsi was deposed.
Three Al-Jazeera International journalists, including Australian Peter Greste, are currently on trial on charges of harming Egypt's national interests by spreading false news and assisting or belonging to a terrorist organisation.
Hearings in that case will resume before the Cairo Criminal Court on Monday.
