The Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) condemned the arrest of Egyptian journalist and Revolutionary Socialists member Mahmoud Nasr in a Monday statement.

The group’s statement said that Nasr was arrested on 4 September, while filming an old building in Ismailia. A search of his record showed he had been sentenced in absentia to 10 years for protesting in January 2013 in solidarity with victims of the “Badrashin” and Assiut train crashes.

The Revolutionary Socialists said in a statement that Nasr’s sentence and that of nine other activists was passed on 4 August. Among the charges Nasr was accused of illegal assembly and hooliganism, and that he will be kept in detention whilst he works towards a retrial.

The statement added that over 41,000 people are in detention, either for protest cases or other “fabricated cases” and that “we will work until the Protest Law is dropped”.

ANHRI noted that “arresting Mohamed Nasr while performing his work is a serious violation to the freedom of expression”.

The human rights group added that “the sentence issued against him violates the freedom of peaceful protesting”, stating that it has become “an obvious phenomenon by the Egyptian authorities to target journalists”.

ANHRI demands the release of all detained journalists.