CAIRO, May 18 (Aswat Masriya) – Known for his efforts in student advocacy and research, Mohamed Nagy was "arbitrarily" arrested on April 25, to be later sentenced to five years in prison for unauthorised protest, according to the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE).

The sentence was appealed and the first appeals session is scheduled for May 24.  

Calls for protests emerged ahead of April 25, which coincided with Sinai Liberation Day, in opposition to the recently signed maritime border demarcation agreement between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Authorities met those calls with wide-scale mass arrests, with over 250 individuals arrested on April 25 alone.

On Saturday, an Egyptian court sentenced 152 protesters to between two and five years in prison each after they demonstrated against the border agreement which transfers two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

Twenty-six year old Nagy was among 101 who received the maximum sentence possible for unauthorised protest, which is five years imprisonment, as stipulated by the controversial protest law issued late 2013.

"This sentence was not a decision of the court, but rather a preset political decision to silence every voice that tries to criticise the existing political authority," AFTE said in a statement on Wednesday regarding the verdict which came swiftly on the second hearing of the case.

Lawyer Ahmed Othman from AFTE told Aswat Masriya that the arrest happened "arbitrarily", pointing out that there were no protests in the area form which Nagy was arrested.

"The terrorism circuit court, which issued the verdict, specialises in cases of terrorism and violence only, but this case does not involve violence," Othman said, describing how terrorism circuits are characterised by their harsh and rapid sentences.

"We hope the judge cancels the sentence in the appeals session, because after all this is just a protest that we are talking about," Othman added.

Nagy was responsible for AFTE's work on students' freedoms and rights and was managing the "Student Observatory", which follows up on news from 15 national universities and Al-Azhar University via a network of students and reporters.

The researcher contributed to the production of several reports, research papers and in-depth studies on issues related to students' regulations, student unions and their functionality. He also launched several advocacy campaigns which provide support for students, most important of which was his work with the German University in Cairo students.

AFTE describes him as "one of the most promising Egyptian researchers in the field of student rights and academic freedoms."