Key Muslim Brotherhood leader arrested in Egypt

Egyptian security forces have raided an apartment in eastern Cairo, arresting a key Muslim Brotherhood figure who had been on the run since the July coup that removed the country’s Islamist president, the interior ministry said.

The arrest of Essam el-Erian, the deputy leader of the Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, was the latest in a wide-ranging crackdown and prosecution of both the Islamist group’s leaders and its rank-and-file since the removal of president Mohammed Morsi, who also hails from the Brotherhood.