CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian authorities have freed 16 Muslim Brotherhood members, including senior members, who were arrested in February after a court ordered their release last week, the group's lawyer said on Thursday.

Deputy leader Mahmoud Ezzat and Essam al-Erian, members of the group's governing body, were set free late on Wednesday while the remaining 14 members, including senior members Abdel-Rahman Al Bar and Mohi Hamed, were released on Thursday.

Egyptian authorities had accused the senior members of setting up a body aligned with the thinking of former leader Sayyed Qotb who was executed in the 1960s and whose ideas have inspired militants.

But a criminal court ordered their release on April 4 as no evidence was found.

"We are glad to see the authorities' swift execution of the court's release order," the group's lawyer Abdel-Moneim Abdel-Maksoud told Reuters.

The Brotherhood says it wants peaceful political reform to establish a democratic state. Though banned, the group won a fifth of the seats in parliament in 2005 when members ran as independents.

"Accusations against these members as well as others are false. This is a political case and we hope that the rest of the detained members are released especially as parliamentary elections are coming," senior member Gamal Nassar told Reuters.

The Brotherhood says the series of security sweeps are aimed at disrupting the group's political activity.

Analysts expect the group's numbers in parliament to shrink at the election in the second half of this year after increasing state suppression of the group.

The government of President Hosni Mubarak, whose predecessor was gunned down by Islamic militants, is wary of any group with Islamist leanings, including the Brotherhood.