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Egypt is holding the highest number of journalists behind bars since record keeping began, using the pretext of national security to crack down on press freedoms, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Thursday.

Amendments to three laws aimed at paving the way for Egypt's long-delayed parliamentary elections are expected to be discussed by the cabinet in a plenary meeting this week. 

The three laws regulate the division of electoral constituencies, the workings of the House of Representatives, and the exercise of political rights.

Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday, in a case related to charges of spying for Hamas.

The court also sentenced 17 defendants to life in prison, and 16 to death, including Muslim Brotherhood leaders Khairat El-Shater and Mohamed El-Beltagy.

According to Egypt's penal code, life sentences are 25 years.

In the espionage case, prosecutors charged Morsi and 35 other defendants with conspiring with foreign powers - including Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guards - to destabilise Egypt.

A Cairo court on Tuesday sentenced ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi to death and to life in jail in two different trials, as Egyptian courts continue to rule in cases against alleged supporters of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood group from which he hails.

The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced Morsi and five others, including top Brotherhood figures Mohamed Badie, Saad El-Katatni and Essam El-Erian, to death over the 2011 Wadi Natroun prison break case.

A government committee has agreed to reduce the number of parliamentary constituencies to 205 from 206, in line with the view of the State Council, Transitional Justice Minister Ibrahim El-Heneidy has said.

The decision was agreed by the committee and the legislation department at the State Council.

El-Heneidy, who heads the committee responsible for amending the election laws, said he would notify the cabinet about the legislation department's approval of the amendments.

Egypt's Press Syndicate is to hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the ongoing crackdown on journalists and press freedom, the head of the syndicate’s freedoms committee, Khaled El-Balshy, told Ahram Online.

“The interior ministry and many other governmental apparatuses have been filing frequent legal complaints against journalists, and these are all proof that the current government is targeting journalists,” El-Balshy said.

“I don’t have any information about a coming cabinet reshuffle,” said Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab Wednesday, commenting on speculation that he himself might leave office ‎sometime soon.

Reports have circulated recently in the Egyptian media of a possible cabinet reshuffle as ‎President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on Sunday publicly criticised a number of ministers, including ‎Mahlab.

Reports have circulated in the Egyptian media of a possible cabinet reshuffle as President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi publicly criticised on Monday a number of ministers, including Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab.

El-Sisi, who completes one year in office on Tuesday, told Mahlab "You promised me you'll be a bulldozer to pave the road. Where is this bulldozer?"

The president, who was the military chief before resigning to run for office, also criticised the cabinet's delay in digging up wells to cultivate lands, state news agency MENA reported.