A cairo criminal court has renewed the detention of prominent opposition figure Ziad Eleleimy and three others over charges of plotting chaos in the country, a judicial source said.

Eleleimy, a leading member of the Social Democratic Party and a former lawmaker, was arrested in June along with seven others over accusations of collaborating with figures of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group abroad to spark violence and riots in the country.

Those arrested at the time included economist Omar El-Shenety and journalists Hossam Moenis and Hisham Fouad.

Moenis was the manager of the presidential campaign of opposition leader Hamdeen Sabahi, the sole candidate who ran against El-Sisi in the 2014 presidential vote.

The court on Wednesday renewed the detention of the four for 45 days, and released five others accused in the same case, including two women and two university students, for "humanitarian reasons."

The Civil Democratic Movement (CDM), a coalition of Egyptian opposition parties and figures in which Eleleimy is a member, had denied those arrested had any links with the Muslim Brotherhood, which was designated a terrorist organisation in 2013.