At least 350 arrested in Egypt's crackdown against anti-Sisi protesters

Over 350 people have been arrested across Egypt in the latest wave of demonstrations against Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, according to a Cairo-based non-governmental organisation.

In a statement, the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) said 356 people have been arrested since protests began on Friday.

Egypt effectively banned protests under a law passed following President Mohamed Morsi's 2013 ouster.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in central Cairo and several cities on Friday against Sisi, a former army general who came in power in 2014 after forcing out Morsi.

The protests came in response to calls for Sisi to step down by Mohamed Ali, a former army contractor, who accused Sisi and the military of corruption.

Among those include journalists, students and activists, Mahienour El Masry, an award-winning human rights lawyer also arrested on Sunday. 

According to her lawyer,  Egyptian authorities detained her after she attended judicial investigations into protesters arrested during demonstrations against Sisi. 

Massry "was arrested as soon as she left the State Security Prosecutor's headquarters in Cairo, where she had attended the investigations as a lawyer for several of those arrested during the demonstrations", Tarek al Awadi said.

NetBlocks, an organisation that tracks internet outages, tweeted Sunday evening that Facebook Messenger and social media servers were being "restricted in #Egypt by leading providers", adding that the incident was "ongoing".

Massry, a political activist and human rights defender, has been tried and jailed twice for taking part in demonstrations.

In December 2013, following the army's overthrow of Morsi in mass protests, she was arrested and imprisoned until September 2014 on charges of participating in a demonstration without a permit.

While in prison, Massry received the Ludovic Trarieux Award, an international prize given out annually to a lawyer for contributions to human rights.

In 2015, Massry was given another year-long sentence for taking part in a sit-in during Morsi's rule.