“I still do not know the fate of the investigation with me regarding the two mentioned accusations,” Bahgat said. “The defence lawyers will try to find out more in the coming days.”
Bahgat, who founded the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in 2002, said he “resisted several attempts to intimidate and entice me to waive my right to call a lawyer.”
During his detention, Bahgat said he was escorted around by armed men in civilian clothes, and was blindfolded on three occasions.
At one point, he was taken to an empty field, told to take off his shirt and trousers, and was then inspected superficially by a doctor, he said. He was also held temporarily in “a narrow, dark cell void of anything but two blankets on the floor”.
Bahgat is one of Egypt’s best-known rights advocates, honoured with a Human Rights Watch Alison Des Forges Award in 2011.
The army had said he was referred to military trial for “compromising national security” and writing about the military without its written permission, while lawyers said he faced charges of spreading “false news”.
A day earlier, United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon expressed concern over the detention, with his spokesman calling it “the latest of a series of detentions of human rights defenders and others that is profoundly worrying”.
Egypt’s foreign ministry on Tuesday denounced Mr Ban’s concerns, saying his statement “jumped to conclusions” over press freedoms and that the Bahgat investigation was clearly related to possible violations of the penal code.
Bahgat’s detention, which caused a wave of uproar among activists, is part of a sweeping crackdown on critical media launched in the aftermath of the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
As military chief, Mr Sisi led Mr Morsi’s overthrow during mass protests against his divisive rule, and was elected president last year.