CAIRO: The Egyptian Bar Association announced Thursday an unlimited strike to condemn the imprisonment of six colleagues for a court brawl with three clerks earlier this month, reports AFP.

We are immediately suspending all of our activities, we will stop appearing before the courts and participating in public prosecution investigations from January 19 and for an unlimited period, it said in a statement.

The association claimed there had been a clear intention by authorities to keep the six lawyers in detention without real justification, denouncing a rush to bring them to trial without taking the time to carry out a real investigation.

The convicted lawyers have appealed their sentences, with a hearing set for Sunday.

Last month, in a rare display of dissent in a country where public demonstrations are banned, thousands of lawyers demonstrated in Cairo against the government's introduction of a new electronic invoicing system.