CAIRO, Aug 17 (Aswat Masriya) - Jailed political activist and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah and his sister Sanaa Seif were allowed early Sunday to visit their comatose father Ahmad Seif Hamad in hospital.

Jailed on separate charges, the siblings were allowed the visit after public prosecution authorised it, said Mona Seif, their sister. In a Facebook status, Seif said on Sunday her family had filed a request for the visit to the public prosecution 10 days earlier.

"We wanted to give this [visit] the best chance of happening, so we kept a low profile," she said.

Seif, who founded in 2011 the No Military Trials for Civilians group, said her father suffered a cardiac arrest on Friday afternoon for a few minutes before he was resuscitated, to remain unconscious since then. 

"We don't know how much damage he suffered in the minutes when his brain was deprived of oxygen," Seif said.

Hamad, 63, is a human rights lawyer and one of the founders of the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre for human rights. He has been actively advocating human rights since his release from jail in 1988; he was arrested and tortured in 1983 for his socialist activism.

Seif said the family was able to secure the visit's permit with the help of lawyers and members of the state-affiliated National Council for Human Rights.

"I have no idea what will happen with my father's condition," Seif wrote. "We don't know when he'll become conscious again - or even if he will. But I am certain that he is with us, that he feels the huge love that surrounds him and the prayers and wishes that are made for him. I know that he heard Alaa and Sanaa when they spoke to him in the early hours of this morning."

Alaa Abdel Fattah was arrested on June 11 shortly after being convicted of violating the protest law, among other charges. The law, issued by former interim President Adli Mansour in November to regulate peaceful assembly, has long been the epicentre of wide criticism by domestic and international human rights organisations which say it violates international standards for peaceful protests.

Abdel Fattah's sister Sanaa Seif was meanwhile arrested on June 21 while taking part in a march calling for the repeal of the protest law and the release of all those arrested on background of the law. She has been referred to a misdemeanour court, alongside 23 other protesters, for illegal assembly as well as other charges.