CAIRO, May 11 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt's Court of Cassation turned down on Monday a request for retrial by political activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, upholding his suspended year-in-prison sentence.

Abdel Fattah received a suspended one-year in prison sentence alongside his sister Mona Seif and 10 other activists for assembly in January 2014.

The defendants were accused of torching the electoral headquarters of former minister and presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq in May 2012. The former prosecutor general had referred the case to court, despite a waiver by Shafiq.

The court had dropped the charges of robbing and torching the headquarters due to the expiry of the statute of limitations.

Abdel Fattah's defence team had challenged the ruling, describing it as "void" for depending on the Homeland Security apparatus's investigation.

Abdel Fattah, a political activist who gained prominence during the January 2011 uprising which toppled the regime of Hosni Mubarak, is currently in prison as he was sentenced to five years in maximum security prison for violating the protest law in November 2013.