Egyptian police Wednesday arrested Essam al-Erian, the most senior Muslim Brotherhood leader to have remained at large since the overthrow of Islamist president and Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi, dpa reported.
Security forces captured al-Erian, the deputy leader of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, in an early morning raid on a flat in the Fifth Settlement district on the outskirts of Cairo, the state-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported online, citing the Interior Ministry.
The newspaper published photographs of a smiling al-Erian after his arrest.
Prosecutors made their way to Tora prison in the south of the city, where most senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders are being held, to interrogate al-Erian, state television reported.
Al-Erian, seen as a dove in the Islamist organization, ran for the leadership of the Freedom and Justice Party in October last year but lost to former parliamentary speaker Saad al-Katatni.
His arrest came days before Morsi was due to go on trial on charges related to the killings of demonstrators during protests outside the presidential palace in December.