Alaa Abd El-Fatah and 24 others were arrested during a protest before the lower House of Parliament in Cairo ("Magles Al-Shura").  The charges included assaulting a police officer, stealing government property (an officer's walkie-talkie), and holding an unlicensed protest.  The lower court sentenced them all to 15 years in prison for violating the ban on unlicensed protests and demonstrations.  The sentence of the lower court included a 5-year probation component in addition to a 100,000 Egyptian pound penalty for each defendant (approximately 20,000 USD each). According to semi-independent Egyptian news sources, the defendants are still in custody despite a prior court ruling to set them free.  On September 15, 2014 the appellate criminal court refrained from hearing the case but set some of the defendants free with no explanation. Later, however, on November 26, 2014, the court ruled that Alaa Abd El-Fatah and his co-defendants would remain in custody until February 2015.  There was a follow-up hearing of the defendants' appeal on December 4, 2014, which resulted in further delay and no clear outcome. The court granted an extension to the defense until February 2015 to complete their investigations.