Hundreds of Sudanese Islamists protested outside a U.N. office in central Khartoum Friday against the death sentence handed down to Egypt's ousted president Mohamed Morsi by a court last week.

Morsi was among more than 100 defendants ordered by an Egyptian court on Saturday to face the death penalty for their role in a mass jailbreak during the 2011 uprising.

Islamic State group jihadists in Egypt have called for attacks on judges in retaliation for the hanging of six convicted militants and a crackdown on Islamists.

The audio message, posted online on Wednesday night, comes days after militants in the Sinai Peninsula gunned down two judges, a prosecutor and their driver, in the first such attack in Egypt.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel still plans to meet Egypt's president when he visits next month, her spokesman said Wednesday, after Germany's parliament speaker called off his talks citing rights violations.

The parliament speaker, Norbert Lammert, said on Tuesday that he had written to the Egyptian ambassador in Berlin canceling his meeting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi due to human rights abuses.

Egypt swore in a new justice minister Wednesday whom critics accuse of "elitism" and who is known for his anti-Islamist views, nine days after his predecessor resigned over controversial comments.

"Ahmed al-Zind was sworn in in front of the president and in the presence of the prime minister," a statement from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's office said.

Egyptian authorities have unleashed a "reign of terror" against opponents of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a prominent academic who was recently sentenced to death told AFP in an interview.

Emad Shahin, who fled Egypt in January 2014 and is a visiting professor at Washington-based Georgetown University, was handed the death penalty on Saturday in his absence with 15 others on charges of espionage.

Egyptian security forces have stepped up sexual attacks against detainees since the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi, using them as a "cynical political strategy" to crush opposition, a rights group charged Tuesday.

Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, was deposed in July 2013 by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi after mass protests against his sole year in office.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed serious concern on Monday after an Egyptian court sentenced ousted president Mohamed Morsi to death.

Morsi was among more than 100 defendants given the death penalty Saturday for their role in a mass jailbreak during the 2011 uprising.

Gunmen on a motorbike shot dead an Egyptian policeman while two suspects in a failed bomb attack targeting a judge were killed in a shoot-out with police, officials said Monday.

Militants have carried out regular attacks on policemen and soldiers since the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Egypt has imposed restrictions on female citizens traveling to Turkey, police said Sunday, months after introducing similar measures for men to stop them joining the Islamic State jihadist group.

Women aged 18 to 40 are now required to obtain security clearance before going to Turkey, a senior police officer told AFP, without specifying why.

A prominent Qatar-based Muslim cleric said Sunday that death sentences handed down by an Egyptian court against himself and deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi violated Islam.

Egyptian-born preacher Yusuf al-Qaradawi said the death sentences handed down on Saturday against more than 100 defendants, who also included Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie, ran contrary to Islamic law.