Cairo: A leading secular activist, Alaa Abdel Fatah, was arrested on Thursday, his wife said, after having been accused of inciting protests in violation of a controversial new law.
Security services arrested Alaa Abdel Fattah from his home in a western district of Cairo, his wife, Manal Hassan, tweeted, saying she had been "beaten" during the arrest.
The prosecution ordered his arrest Wednesday along with that of another prominent activist, Ahmed Maher, for allegedly defying a law banning all but police-sanctioned protests.
Both were prominent dissidents under ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
"Deja vu, I`m about to hand myself in to the authorities again on Saturday," Abdel Fattah wrote the same day on Facebook.
He had been arrested under Morsi`s predecessor Hosni Mubarak, then transitional military junta that ruled after Mubarak`s overthrow and finally during Morsi`s year in office.
