An Egyptian court on Wednesday convicted a prominent human rights activist of spreading false news and insulting a police officer, and sentenced her to 18 months in prison, her family and lawyer said.

Sanaa Seif, of Egypt�s most well-known family of activists, was arrested in June last year. She was accused by prosecutors of �broadcasting fake news and rumors� about the country�s health conditions and the spread of the coronavirus in prisons.

She was also convicted of insulting a police officer on Facebook, her lawyer Hesham Ramada said. He said they would appeal Wednesday�s Cairo Criminal Court ruling to a higher court.

Seif, who has been in custody since her arrest, has denied the accusations.

The verdict has stirred outcry by international rights groups, which accuse Egyptian authorities of waging a broad crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands � mainly Islamists, but also others, including several well-known secular activists.

Amna Guellali, Amnesty International�s regional deputy director, condemned the court ruling as �another crushing blow for the right to freedom of expression in Egypt.�

�Egyptian authorities have yet again demonstrated their unrelenting intent to punish any criticism of their dismal human rights record,� Guellali said.

Seif was arrested while she and other family members were at the public prosecutor�s office to file a complaint about an attack against them outside Cairo�s Tora prison complex a day earlier, her sister Mona Seif, also an activist, said at the time.

The group had been going daily to Tora hoping to receive a letter from Seif�s brother, imprisoned activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, which they say prison officials had promised to pass on to them.

Seif�s father, Ahmed Seif al-Islam, who died in 2014, was a renowned human rights lawyer. Her mother, Leila Soueif, a mathematician, is a prominent advocate of academic independence. Her aunt is award-winning novelist Ahdaf Soueif.

Her brother, Abdel-Fattah, rose to prominence with Egypt�s 2011 uprising. He was arrested following a relatively minor anti-government protest in September 2019.

That arrest came after he had been released in March that year, following five years in prison for taking part in a peaceful protest against the military trials of civilians.

Wednesday�s verdict was not the first against Seif, a film editor who worked on �The Square,� a 2013 Oscar-nominated documentary on the 2011 uprising.

In 2016, she was sentenced to six months in prison after being convicted of insulting a government employee while performing his duties. She also served 15 months of a three-year sentence for demonstrating against a law banning public gatherings, and was pardoned early.

(AP)