CAIRO - Egyptian authorities Wednesday released two senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of them was the deputy chairman of the group, banned since 1954, a lawyer said. "Khyrat el-Shatter and Hassan Malek were released by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces after a petition to release them was accepted," said Gamal Tag, secretary of the Freedoms' Committee at the Bar Association. Tag told DPA that the group was also asking for the release of Brotherhood leader Osama Suleiman, who was detained in the same case. El-Shatter, the group's third in command, and Malek were sentenced to seven years in jail by a military court in April 2004 for money laundering and belonging to a banned group. "Human rights groups as well as the Brotherhood are calling for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to immediately release other political detainees," said Tag.
