A Cairo court ordered on Wednesday a 45 day renewed detention of doctors’ syndicate freedom committee member Taher Mokhtar and his two roommates pending further investigations.

Mokhtar, a long-time revolutionary socialist activist and a member of the freedoms committee at the syndicate, was arrested along with his roommates Hossam El-Din Hamed and Ahmed Hassan on 14 January at his apartment in downtown Cairo.

Mokhtar and his roommates are accused of inciting protests for the fifth anniversary of the 25 January revolution, an accusation that the doctor and roommates emphatically deny.

According to the prosecution, the defendants are accused of "possession of posters that call for protesting and overthrowing the government."

However, according to Mokhtar's lawyer, Mokhtar simply possessed union documents about  the medical conditions of  jailed doctors. 

Several Egyptian NGOs and human rights organisations as well as a group of prominent public figures have called for the immediate release of Mokhtar and his housemates in a campaign highlighting his long activism in Egypt’s medical sector