[JURIST] Egypt officials announced Saturday that they will release from prison two leaders of the banned Muslim Brotherhood [party website; FAS backgrounder] who were jailed in May for their involvement in pro-judicial independence protests [JURIST report]. Essam el-Erian and Mohamed Mursi were previously arrested in 2005 for protesting a constitutional referendum [JURIST report] aimed at implementing multi-party elections, which they felt impermissibly favored longtime President Hosni Mubarak. Both will be restricted to house arrest upon release, which a Brotherhood spokesperson said should occur within several days.

Earlier this month Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif announced an 18-month timetable [JURIST report] for lifting the state of emergency that Egypt [JURIST news archive] has existed in the country since 1981. Reuters has more.