 In protest of the return of military rule, Soltan joined the Rab’aa Al-Adawiya sit-ins, where he served as a de facto citizen-journalist and often coordinated with foreign journalists and the protestors.As a result, he became a first hand witness to the violent dispersal of the sit-in, where he sustained a gunshot wound in the arm by snipers while live-tweeting what later came to be known as the bloodiest massacre in Egypt's recent history.Soltan was subsequently arrested, along with three journalists by Egyptian security forces on 25 August 2013 shortly afterward, while recovering at his family home in the suburbs of Cairo.