Two prominent politicians are being investigated by prosecutors on allegations of insulting the judiciary.
Egyptian prosecutors have formally requested that the political immunity of Muslim Brotherhood Shura Council member Sobhi Saleh be lifted, and have issued an arrest warrant for head of the Wasat Party, Essam Sultan.
A number of judges had filed complaints against the two earlier this week, after the latest developments in an ongoing crisis in relationships between the Islamist government and the Egyptian judiciary.
The ongoing crisis was exacerbated by proposed amendments to the judicial authority law.
The proposed amendments to the law governing judicial roles, presented in April by the moderate Islamist Wasat Party and endorsed by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, caused uproar among judges.
The bill reduces the retirement age for judges from 70 to 60, which would effectively pension off about a quarter of Egypt's 13,000 serving judges.
Proponents of the legislative changes argue that the retirement age had been gradually increased from 60 to 70 by the Mubarak regime in an effort to prolong the terms of pro-regime judges.
