A scheduled Wednesday Cabinet meeting will discuss proposals for toughening penalties against those convicted of employing violence against the interior ministry or its employees, Cabinet spokesman Alaa El-Hadidy said on Tuesday.
El-Hadidy added that proposed legislation to this effect would be referred to the Shura Council, the upper house of Egypt's parliament which is currently endowed with legislative powers.
The move follows the murder of a police officer, Mohamed Abd El-Aziz El-Sayyid, on Tuesday morning. El-Sayyid was killed during an assault on a police inspection committee by unknown assailants in the Qalioubiya governorate north of Cairo.
In a related development, Mohammed Sayyid Abu-Shakra, a member of Egypt's National Security Agency (formerly State Security), was killed on Sunday by unknown attackers in the city of Al-Arish in the northern Sinai Peninsula.
Abo-Shakra's funeral on Monday turned into a demonstration by police against Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim and President Mohammed Morsi, who protesting policemen blamed for the death of their colleague.
Abo-Shakra was part of a task force assigned with searching for the kidnappers of seven Egyptian security personnel who were abducted by unknown militants last month.
The seven were later released by their captors in advance of a planned military campaign.
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