World Bulletin / News Desk 

Egyptian security services arrested two Muslim Brotherhood leaders late on Monday, security sources said, a day before a court is expected to give a final ruling on a death sentence recommendation against Mohamed Mursi, Egypt's president elect.

The arrests of Mahmoud Ghozlan and Abdul Rahman al-Barr followed the government's announcement on Monday that security forces had disrupted a Brotherhood cell which authorities said was gathering intelligence about state institutions and sending it abroad to foreign parties.

Ghozlan was a Brotherhood spokesman and a member of the group's highest office, the Guidance Bureau, while Barr, also a member of the Guidance Bureau, was seen as the Brotherhood's top religious authority, the sources said.

The Brotherhood condemned the arrests in an online statement.

Dictator Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who staged a coup against president elect Mursi's rule.