Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah has appealed a verdict of a month in prison for "insulting the interior ministry," legal sources told Ahram Online.

Sources said that an Egyptian misdemeanor court set 16 October as the date to decide on the appeal.

Abdel-Fattah was sentenced in absentia to a month in prison and fine of LE200 after a dispute with a police officer while he was detained pending a trial on charges of illegal protesting.

In a Twitter post on Thursday, the activist and blogger said that the ruling was issued "months ago" and that he only learned of it upon his release on 15 September. He added, though, that he had obtained the case file on Thursday.

Abdel-Fattah was released last month pending trial in what is known in Egyptian media as "The Shoura Council" case, in which he and 24 others are accused of breaking a controversial protest law in November 2013.

He and dozens of detainees in Egyptian prisons are currently on a hunger strike to protest the law, which they have deemed too restrictive.

Hundreds have been arrested under the law's provisions since it was issued in late 2013.