Human rights lawyer Ahmed Seif El-Islam criticised on Sunday the sentence handed to his children, activists Alaa Abdel-Fatah and Mona Seif.

Earlier on Sunday, Giza Criminal Court sentenced Abdel-Fattah, his sister Seif and ten more defendants to a suspended one-year jail sentence on accusations of torching the campaign headquarters of former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq in 2012.

“Today’s verdict was trying to please everyone … it pleased the government by convicting the defendants and pleased the defendants by suspending the sentence,” said Seif El-Islam in a phone interview with Aswat Masriya news website.

The prominent lawyer accused the judiciary system after 30 June of “being politicised,” adding that it will be clear whether the verdict was politicised or not when the court releases its reasoning for the ruling.

He added that he hoped that the “positive implications” of their verdict could be applied to all those unfairly imprisoned, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The jail term against the defendants will remain suspended for three years. If any of the defendants are found guilty of additional charges within this time, the one-year term would be added onto subsequent sentences.

Seif also criticized the verdict on her Facebook page.

“If it was really proven that we committed such accusations, then we should have not been released,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, her father affirmed that they will appeal the verdict, and in case it failed to “do us justice we will take it to the African court for human rights.”