CAIRO, Nov 26 (Aswat Masriya) - Egyptian police fired water cannons and teargas to disperse a protest staged outside Cairo's Shura Council on Tuesday afternoon, an Aswat Masriya eyewitness said.

Hundreds staged a protest outside Egypt's top legislative authority building in central Cairo to denounce the approval of an article stipulating military trials for civilians in the amended constitution.

Article 173 of the amended constitution allows military trials for civilians “In crimes that represent a direct assault on military installations, army camps, military districts or crimes that represent a direct assault on military officers or personnel.”

The police asked the protesters to break up their gathering and they refused, according to the eyewitness.

The security forces detained some political activists, including Salma Said, Mai Saad, Nazli Hussien and Mona Seif who tweeted "We are now arrested."

They are currently held inside the Shura Council.

The Interior Ministry said it detained around 20 protesters, but it did not reveal the reasons behind their detention.

Former parliamenterian and political activist Ziad al-Elemi said that he would turn himself in as one of the organizers of the protest along with some other activists.

This is the second protest dispersed by the police on Tuesday as there was another protest held earlier to commemorate a young activist who was killed in clashes last year and against the recently-approved protest law.

Egypt's army-backed interim government passed a protest law on Sunday which fundamentally restricts the right to peaceful assembly.

“The protest law forbids Egyptians from the rights to assembly, strike, demonstrate and stage sit-ins and it legalizes their murder," said a joint statement by 17 Egyptian non-governmental organizations issued on Friday.

The new law requires that protesters notify the authorities three days prior to the protest of their plans and that they say the reasons behind the protest and the slogans that will be raised in it.