CAIRO, June 18 (Aswat Masriya)- Human and minority rights researcher at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) Mina Thabet was released on a bail of 10,000 EGP on Saturday after one month of detention.

ECRF said in a statement that prosecution has appealed against his release. Thabet is set to stand in court, which will examine the prosecution’s appeal, in two days.

Thabet, who was the director of research on minorities and religious groups at ECRF, was arrested from his home on May 19, the international watchdog Amnesty International reported.  

“He was seized during a raid on his home in Cairo in the early hours of this morning by members of the Egyptian National Security Agency, who ill-treated him and his family members and refused to disclose his place of detention,” Amnesty International had said in a statement.

The rights researcher faced an array charges including inciting use of violence, inciting to overthrow the regime and joining a "terrorist group" that aims at disrupting the law and preventing state institutions from carrying out its duties. 

Thabet also faced charges of calling for protests on Apr. 25 against the Egyptian-Saudi maritime border demarcation agreement, which confers the transfer of the two strategic Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia.    

Many Egyptians, mostly youth, have been detained and convicted of violating a protest law that was introduced in November 2013. The law imposes restrictions on protests without obtaining prior approval from the interior ministry.

The law has been widely criticised by domestic and international human rights organisations which say it violates international standards that allow for peaceful protests.

Hundreds of Egyptian youth were arrested in April for protesting against a decision by Sisi to cede control over two strategic Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.