A Cairo court on Thursday acquitted three police officers on charges of torturing five Islamist militants who were in their custody during the rule of former president Hosni Mubarak, judicial sources said.

The officers were accused of giving electric shocks to the militants, depriving them of food and beating them during their interrogations.

Turkey's ambassador to Cairo has returned home after being expelled in a diplomatic spat over Ankara's support for Egypt's ousted Islamist president, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

The row erupted at the weekend after Turkish Prime Minister Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan again criticized the military "coup" in Egypt that ousted president Mohamed Morsi in July.

Egyptian authorities Wednesday jailed 14 women said to be Muslim Brotherhood members for 11 years, and ordered the arrest of two leading activists for demonstrating against a disputed protest law.

A court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria sentenced the 14 women who it said were from the Brotherhood after convicting them of belonging to a "terrorist organisation," judicial sources said.

Egypt said it has approved a request for a demonstration on Wednesday against a new protest law that has faced stiff opposition since it was enacted at the weekend.

The interior ministry said the demonstration organized by activist groups would be held at Talaat al-Harb Square in downtown Cairo later on Wednesday.

Egypt's new constitution is still in the drafting stage but has already disappointed rights groups and activists who had hoped it would curb the military's wide-ranging powers and privileges.

They have particularly objected to a provision which would allow military trials for civilians accused of "harming" the armed forces, which they fear could be interpreted expansively to target protesters, journalists and dissidents.

Egypt will put on trial eight people including Islamist leaders and an Al-Jazeera journalist on charges of inciting "torture" during the 2011 uprising, judicial sources said Wednesday.

A date has yet to be fixed for the trial of the eight, who also include a former minister, the sources said.

Egypt on Wednesday ordered the arrest of two prominent activists for defying a new law on demonstrations, hours after the authorities dumped a mainly-women group of protesters in the desert.

Egypt's general prosecutor had ordered the arrest of Ahmed Maher, founder of the April 6 movement that spearheaded the 2011 revolt against former president Hosni Mubarak, and Alaa Abdel Fattah, a prominent activist, state news agency MENA said.

Ten members of the panel drafting Egypt's new constitution suspended work Tuesday after authorities arrested several protesters, including a few prominent activists, a committee member said.

Hoda El-Sadda, a senior member of the 50-member panel, told Agence France Presse she and nine others had "suspended work after the arrest of protesters".

Egyptian troops killed a key suspect Tuesday wanted over attacks on the army in the Sinai this year and deadly 2004 and 2006 bombings of tourist resorts, security officials said.

Troops killed Mohamed Hussein Mohareb al-Shahir, his son and a third suspected militant in an operation south of the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuwayed, the officials said.

Egyptian police used water cannon on Tuesday to disperse the first unauthorized protest staged in Cairo since the adoption of a law that regulates demonstrations.

Protesters were demanding the prosecution of those responsible for the deaths of demonstrators in November 2011 when opponents of the then military junta clashed with police in the capital.