CAIRO, Sept 14 (Aswat Masriya) - A number of activists staged a protest on Sunday outside the Journalists' Syndicate in downtown Cairo in solidarity with some of the political prisoners who have started a hunger strike against their detention and the protest law. 

Ahmed Douma, Alaa Abdel Fattah, Mohamed Abdel Rahman "Noubi" and Sanaa Seif and others, who are detained on charges of violating the restrictive protest law,  have announced earlier going into a hunger strike to demand their release. 

In a development on Saturday, several political parties and journalists began a symbolic nationwide hunger strike to demand the release of detainees in what they called the "battle of empty stomachs". 

"This protest aims at attracting attention to the cause of prisoners of opinion and their legitimate demands," one of the participants in the protest told Aswat Masriya, adding that the protest law should be dismissed. 

"It is necessary to focus on the rights of political prisoners and to take their hunger strike seriously and act responsibly in accordance with international medical standards by providing the required care." 

The National Council for Human Rights  has demanded - following a previous visit by its delegation to prisoners on hunger strike in Torah Prison- that Douma undergoes medical examinations and tests in an external hospital, and that Noubi be placed under strict medical observation and transferred to a hospital for low blood pressure, warning that he may go into a coma.