Egypt police kill two Muslim Brotherhood leaders after arrest

Mohammad Kamal, 61, a member of the group's top leadership, and Yasser Shehata, another leader, were killed on early on Tuesday after police raided their flat and arrested them.

The police, however, claim they were killed during a shootout.

"The Muslim Brotherhood has sent a letter to the military junta about their crime of eliminating Dr Mohammad Kamal, a member of the Guidance Bureau, a few hours after he was arrested at a flat in the Bassateen neighbourhood of al-Maadi," a Brotherhood statement released on Tuesday said.

"The military militia announced on Monday that Dr Kamal and Dr Shehata had been arrested. It then said they had been killed in a fabricated story that confirms that Egypt is run by gangsters not a state," it added.

Egypt's Interior Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that police had killed the members of the outlawed Islamist group during a shootout in Cairo.

Unnamed sources told pro-regime newspaper Youm7 in a report that was published at 10:24 pm on Monday that Muslim Brotherhood leaders had been arrested at their "East Cairo hideout".

Also on Monday, a Brotherhood spokesman said on social media that Kamal had disappeared and had "likely been kidnapped by the military".

Then at 12:44 am on Tuesday, the Interior Ministry released its statement, saying they had been killed in an "exchange of gunfire" with police.

The killings draw parallels with an incident last year, when police shot to death 13 members of the Muslim Brotherhood after they were arrested in a flat in a Cairo suburb.

The political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood has that Kamal had been sentenced to life in prison on two counts in absentia and that Shehata was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison for "assaulting and forcibly detaining a citizen".

The Brotherhood has long been Egypt's main political opposition group. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi launched a brutal crackdown on the Islamist group after overthrowing President Mohammad Morsi of the Brotherhood in 2013.

The Arabic-language hashtag #MohammadKamal has gained traction on Twitter after his death was reported.

Translation: "The criminal Egyptian regime's police killed Brotherhood leader Dr Mohammad Kamal hours after they arrested him. They said he was arrested at 10:24 pm then said he was killed at 12:44 am."