Cairo: Seven activists, sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison, have started a hunger strike in the premises of a state-appointed rights watchdog, in the latest protest against a controversial law heavily restricting public rallies.

The seven protesters were among 25 pro-democracy campaigners, including leading protester Ala’a Abdul Fattah, who were convicted earlier this year of holding an unauthorised protest and handed 15 years in prison each.

Several of the convicts, including Abdul Fattah, are in prison, while others are still on the run.

In June, an appeals court ordered a retrial only for the activists already in prison.

“We will not end our hunger strike and sit-in until our demands are met,” said Mamdouh Jamal, one of the seven activists protesting inside the offices of the National Council for Human Rights in Cairo.

According to Jamal, they demand the cancellation of the protest law, issued late last year, and the release of “all prisoners of conscience”.

Thousands of Islamists and secularists have been detained in Egypt since the army deposed Islamist president Mohammad Mursi in July 2013. The detentions have raised concerns inside and outside Egypt about freedoms in the Arab world’s most populous country.

“We denounce oppression practised by the present regime including random detention and fabrication of charges to pass unfair and political verdicts,” Jamal said in a statement.

He and the six others originally went to the council building on Sunday evening to meet one member of the watchdog, but suddenly began their open-ended strike there, according to witnesses. Efforts have since failed to convince them to end the protest.

“We are here to get protection from the National Council for Human Rights after the injustice done to us by the Interior Ministry and the judiciary,” Jamal said.

He warned that families of the jailed defendants and their backers will soon join them to show solidarity.

He shrugged off the possibility that they may be arrested to serve the jail term. “When I receive a 15-year jail sentence at my age of 20, what is left then to fear?”

No official in the rights council was available for comment. Members of the watchdog were expected to hold an emergency meeting soon over the standoff.

The protest law approved last November by the then interim president Adly Mansour, bans street rallies without police permission.

Rights groups and the opposition have since slammed the law, saying it is aimed at muzzling political dissent. The government says it is necessary to regulate street protests and prevent them from turning violent.

Incumbent President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, who took office in June, has repeatedly advocated the law as vital for ending the turmoil that has hit Egypt for more than three years.