An Egyptian schoolboy detained in November for possessing a ruler bearing a symbol associated with the Muslim Brotherhood has been released but the case is yet to be closed.
Amr Abdel-Maksoud, lawyer of 15-year-old Khaled Mohamed, confirmed to Ahram Online that he was released on Sunday after paying LE500 bail, but investigations into the incident would continue.
Mohamed was arrested at school in the northern city of Kafr El-Sheikh on 28 November after a teacher noticed he had a ruler emblazoned with the Rabaa sign, a four-fingered symbol representing supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi – a long-time member of the Brotherhood.
Two weeks later, an arrest warrant was also issued against the boy's father and two of his teachers and they were charged with the same crime, but according to Abdel-Maksoud they have not been arrested thus far.
The Rabaa sign has been widely used since police forcibly disbanded a protest camp supporting Mohamed Morsi at Rabaa Al-Adawiya square in Cairo in mid-August, killing hundreds and sparking widespread unrest.
Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, was ousted by the army after millions protested his troubled one-year reign. The interim authorities have since mounted a sustained crackdown on Islamists which has seen hundreds killed and thousands arrested.
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