CAIRO, Jan 5 (Aswat Masriya) - Activist Ahmed Maher was released on Thursday, three days after he ended two prison terms.

Defence lawyer Ali Al-Halawany said Maher will be put surveillance for three more years after his release, as an additional penalty.

However, he told Aswat Masriya that the defence lawyers will approach the Cairo prosecutor after six months, to mitigate the duration of the surveillance. 

Meanwhile, Cairo Criminal Court president Motaz Khafagi said that the surveillance is mandatory as part of the verdict. "If it was not implemented, the defendant will be imprisoned again," he told Aswat Masriya.

Maher, co-founder of April 6 youth movement, was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2013 after participating in a protest against the protest law in front of Al-Shura council. He was charged with protesting without permit and was ordered to pay a fine of 50,000 Egyptian pounds ($7,200).

Maher was supposed to be released five months later to spend another six-month prison term on charges of attacking a court guard, but a court sentence in May 2016 reduced the verdict to only one month.

A law passed in November 2013, under the interim president Adly Mansour, obliges Egyptians to inform the authorities of their intention to protest three days prior to their demonstration to obtain a permit. 

The April 6 movement was one of the main actors in the January 2011 Uprising, which resulted in the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak after he ruled the country for 30 years.

Other leaders of the movement are currently imprisoned including Ahmed Douma who received life sentence in February 2015 in the cabinet clashes trial.

One year later, the movement’s general coordinator Amr Ali was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of calling for protests, and attempting to overthrow the regime.