Two Islamists, kept in police custody for 15 days, Wednesday started a hunger strike in protest against their detention and what they claimed was the police's mishandling. Gamal Heshmat, a member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, and his colleague Osama Suliman, had been arrested earlier this week on charges of belonging to an outlawed organisation. Heshmat and Sliman refused to comment on the charges, which also include involvement in illegal activists, according to sources inside the group. Their lawyer said they had been arrested inside a car belonging to one of them. Officially banned since 1954, the Muslim Botherhood fields candidates in elections, posing as independents. The group won 88 seats in Egypt's 2005 parliamentary elections.