CAIRO (AFP) - An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced in absentia prominent activist Alaa Abdel Fattah to 15 years in jail on charges of participating in an illegal protest, his lawyer told AFP.

Twenty-four other activists were also sentenced, in absentia, to 15 years in jail each on the same charges.

Abdel Fattah, a prominent youth leader of the 2011 uprising that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak, was arrested in November in a crackdown waged by the military-installed authorities against Islamist and secular dissent since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in July.