A senior Egyptian interior ministry official has been shot dead in Cairo.
General Mohamed Saeed, head of the technical office of the minister of interior, was targeted by gunmen inside a car “who shot him and fled,” a security official said.
The shooting came on the day former Islamist president Mohammed Mursi is to face trial on charges relating to a mass jail break in 2011.
It is one of three cases against him since he was ousted by the army in July last year.
Since Mr Mursi was deposed, security forces have launched a wide crackdown against his Muslim Brotherhood group.
Thousands of people have been arrested and the group was designated a terrorist organisation in December.
Mr Mursi has also been charged, in two separate court cases, in connection with the killing of protesters and collaborating with Islamist Hamas group and Hezbollah to carry out a terrorist conspiracy against Egypt.
He could face the death penalty over the latter charges.
Mr Mursi, along with other brotherhood leaders escaped from prison on 28 January 2011, after being rounded up during the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.
Mr Mursi won the first post-Mubarak presidential elections in 2012 and ruled Egypt for almost a year before mass protests against his rule prompted the army to overthrow him and appoint an interim government in July.
The Brotherhood, once Egypt’s best-organised political and religious movement that won five consecutive elections after Mubarak’s downfall in 2011, denies any links to violence and accuses the army of staging a military coup. (RTE)