Cairo (CNN) -- Police on Monday arrested the head of the defense team for the 21 women and girls sentenced for protesting in Egypt last month, a colleague and member of the defense team told CNN. 
 
 Lawyer Ahmed El-Hamrawy was arrested at his home in Alexandria at dawn Monday, lawyer Mahmoud Farouq told CNN. "I can't separate his arrest from the girls' case," said Farouq, who is part of the team defending the 21 jailed protesters. "This means that any lawyer who comes close to the case will be detained." 
 
 Gen. Nasser El-Abd, the head of the Alexandria Criminal Investigation Department, told Egyptian daily newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm that El-Hamrawy was arrested with five others for "incitement of violence." 
 
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 On Wednesday, 14 women were sentenced to 11 years in prison, and seven minors to juvenile detention, on charges of gathering, thuggery and weapons possession at a demonstration for ousted President Mohamed Morsy. The harsh sentence sparked wide criticism of the way the Interior Ministry and the judiciary have been handling the cases of Morsy supporters. An appeals hearing for their case is scheduled to take place Saturday. 
 
 "We don't have any doubt that this verdict is a new episode in a series of politicized judicial rulings, which include the sentencing of several Al-Azhar students to 17 years for various misdemeanors based on accusations that are mostly trumped up and generalized," said a joint statement issued by 14 rights groups last week. 
 
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 The verdict coincided with an increasing crackdown on non-Islamist activists who oppose the military-led regime and Morsy. Prominent activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, detained during the Mubarak and the military council regimes in 2006 and 2011, is being held pending investigations for his alleged involvement in calling for a demonstration. Ahmed Maher, founder of the April 6 Youth Movement, is also being questioned about similar charges. 
 
 Legislation restricting demonstrations reignited confrontations between police and the non-Islamist opposition, especially at university campuses across the country. A demonstration coinciding with the retrial of two policemen accused of killing Khaled Saied, whose death had fueled the uprising in 2011, was dispersed with force in Alexandria on Monday. 
 
 "El-Hamrawy was part of Morsy's opposition. He demonstrated against him on June 30, but he's been involved in defending freedoms since July 3," when the military removed the Islamist President from power, Farouq told CNN. "He's being punished for that." 
 
 Read: Prison sentences for women as Egypt clamps down on protest ||||| CAIRO (Reuters) - Seven Egyptian men were jailed for life on Wednesday for attacking and sexually harassing women during rallies and celebrations in Cairo's Tahrir Square. 
 
 The sentences were the longest since the president vowed to crack down on sexual assaults in June and the government criminalised sexual harassment, amid widespread criticism from activists and lawyers on its record on tackling such abuse. 
 
 Five men were jailed for life for attacking and harassing women during celebrations of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's inauguration in June. 
 
 Another defendant, aged 16, was jailed for 20 years and a 19-year-old was given two 20-year jail terms, though it was not immediately clear if they would run at the same time. All seven were convicted of sexual harassment, under the new law, and of attempted rape, attempted murder and torture. 
 
 One of the five men along with two other men were also sentenced to life on separate charges of attacking a woman as she celebrated the anniversary of the 2011 revolt that toppled autocratic president Hosni Mubarak. 
 
 A woman involved in one of the cases cried in relief in the courtroom after the verdicts were announced. 
 
 "This verdict is pure justice and the least that those people can get for the crimes they committed," said Nashaat Agha, a lawyer for one of the victims. 
 
 The defendants in both cases - aged 16-49 - stood in a cage in the courtroom and shouted "injustice" after the verdicts were read out. Their relatives attacked journalists. 
 
 "A STRONG MESSAGE" 
 
 Sisi ordered the interior minister to combat sexual harassment after women were attacked as thousands gathered in the streets during his inauguration celebrations. 
 
 A video was posted on YouTube showing a naked woman with injuries on her hip being dragged through a crowd towards an ambulance. It triggered a public outcry and encouraged more victims to come forward. 
 
 Sexual assault was rampant at demonstrations during and after the 2011 anti-Mubarak uprising and has been regularly reported at other large gatherings in Egypt. 
 
 "This ruling gives a strong message to all harassers that their actions are no longer tolerated or accepted ... But the ruling on the teenagers was a bit harsh and could have been reduced," said prominent Egyptian activist and lawyer Gamal Eid. 
 
 Sisi has frequently spoken about the importance of women to society and called for an police officer who rescued a victim of sexual harassment to be honoured. 
 
 But rights campaigners have long said Egypt needs to take sexual harassment more seriously. One female television presenter on a private channel giggled when her colleague mentioned the harassment in Tahrir. The people were simply "happy", she said. 
 
 Egypt passed a law in June punishing sexual harassment with at least six months in jail or fines of at least 3,000 Egyptian pounds ($420). Judicial sources said the arrests of those convicted on Wednesday were made under the new law. 
 
 Sexual harassment, high rates of female genital cutting and a surge in violence after the Arab Spring uprisings have made Egypt the worst country in the Arab world to be a woman, a Thomson Reuters Foundation survey showed late last year. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Asma Alsharif; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Andrew Heavens)
– As protests rage on in Egypt, the lawyer at the helm of the defense team representing 21 young female protesters was today arrested at home for "incitement of violence," CNN reports. On Wednesday, 14 of the women—mostly aged 18 to 22, the AP notes—were sentenced to 11 years following their participation in a pro-Mohamed Morsi demonstration. Seven girls, meanwhile, were sentenced to juvenile detention until they turn 18. Charges included illegal gathering, weapons possession, and thuggery; rights groups called the ruling "politicized." "I can't separate his arrest from the girls' case," says another lawyer defending the women, whose appeal is set to be heard Saturday. "This means that any lawyer who comes close to the case will be detained." Though the women were clamoring for Morsi's reinstatement, he added that the lawyer, Ahmed El-Hamrawy, "was part of Morsi's opposition. He demonstrated against him on June 30, but he's been involved in defending freedoms since July 3 ... He's being punished for that." Authorities have long cracked down on Islamists who supported Morsi, but lately, they've been targeting young, secular demonstrators, the AP notes. A new rule bans gatherings of more than 10 people without prior notice.