Egypt court releases prominent activist on bail

An Egyptian court on Monday ordered the release on bail of leading activist Alaa Abdel Fattah on charges of protesting without police permit, and referred the case to another court, state-run Ahram newspaper reported on its website.
Blogger Abdel Fattah was one of the leading activists who spearheaded the massive protests that ousted president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
He will pay a 5,000 Egyptian pound bail (about 699 U.S. dollars) , and the judge recused himself in the case for feeling uneasiness and referred it to another court.
Abdel Fattah was sentenced in June to 15 years in jail along with 24 others over organizing unlicensed protests in November outside the Shura Council (the upper house of the parliament) and defying a controversial protest law that requires protesters to report their activities to the state three days prior.
Abdel Fattah was also charged with assaulting security men and inciting people for protests against the then military-installed government.