CAIRO — The latest arrest in a week of crackdowns came suddenly in the evening of Nov. 28 when police officers reportedly broke through the door of prominent activist Alaa Abd El Fattah’s home, beat him and slapped his wife, stoking the fury of activists already angered that day over the first protester death under a prohibitive new protest law.

The restrictive law has been challenged since being issued Sunday, Nov. 24, by protest camps on polar ends of the political spectrum — namely secular-leaning activists and the Muslim Brotherhood, whose outrage at the military-backed regime converges on social media while remaining parallel in the streets.

On Friday, Nov. 29, Fattah was reportedly ordered by the public prosecutor to serve four days in jail pending an investigation. According to his lawyer, his charges include "being part of a mob, protesting without notification to authorities, obstructing a road, protesting while carrying weapons, assaulting public officers, thuggery and robbery," said Omar Robert Hamilton, founder of the activist video collective Mosireen and one of the spokespeople for his case.

Fattah’s surprise arrest occurred around 10 p.m. on Nov. 28 as his son Khalid, 2, slept in the next room, Hamilton said. The police “had no search warrant, and when his wife demanded to see it, they were both beaten,” he said, adding, “They took their computers and telephones.” Fattah’s younger sister and wife tweeted about the arrest later that night.