A juvenile criminal court in Cairo has ordered an open-ended stay in a penal institution for a minor arrested in November for insulting a policeman.

The courts convicted Ahmed Aboul Magd, dubbed in the media as “traffic boy,” of insulting, bullying, show of force, assaulting bystanders and misusing the internet.

The criminal court also ordered sentencing two other defendants in the case, Mostafa Tamer and Ramez Essam, to one year in prison and a fine of EGP 10,000 for possessing cannabis.

The court also sentenced the two defendants, as well as another defendant, Amr Farouk, to one month in prison and a fine of EGP 20,000, over show of force.

It also imposed a fine of EGP 50,000 on all four defendants for assaulting bystanders and a public servant, and a fine of EGP 100,000 for misusing the internet and violating family values.

The incident

A video clip went viral on social media in November where the boy is seen driving a car despite not being of driving age, and verbally insulting a low-ranking police officer who asked to see his driving license.

The video clip ends with the 13-year-old boy speeding away with the car, causing the policeman to fall on his back as he attempted to register the vehicle’s license plate.

The clip raised a public uproar in the country, especially when it was revealed that the boy’s father is a member of the judiciary.

The prosecution placed the defendant under monitoring in November, and released him into his family’s custody on the condition that they send him to rehabilitation sessions.

A judicial source was quoted by local media as saying that some of the defendants, including the child who drove the car, tested positive for drugs.

Just hours after the boy’s release, and after he appeared with a Facebook blogger in a video asking for forgiveness, the boy appeared in a live stream with a group of his friends on Instagram trading explicit insults with viewers.

The second half of the video of his encounter with the policeman in Maadi surfaced online, where the boy and his friends were seen going back to the policeman and threatening him.

“I would beat the crap out of you if you were not old,” the boy is heard saying, as his friends accuse the policeman of breaking the car’s side mirror.