In the bid to quell the burgeoning jihadist insurgency, Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has approved stringent new counter-terrorism laws.

Apart from special courts established by the new laws, they also offer additional protection from legal consequences for military and police officers who have used force.

They also impose the death penalty for anyone found guilty of setting up or leading a terrorist group.

Jihadist groups stepped up their attacks after the military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi two years ago and launched a deadly crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood.

President Sisi vowed to bring in tough new counter-terrorism legislation in June, following the assassination by car bomb of Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat.

Under the new laws introduced on Monday:

• trials for suspected militants will be fast-tracked through special courts. Anyone found guilty of joining a militant group could face 10 years in prison
• financing terrorist groups will also carry a penalty of life in prison (25 years)
• inciting violence or creating websites deemed to spread terrorist messages will carry sentences of five to seven years
• journalists can be fined between 200,000 and 500,000 Egyptian pounds (£16,300-£41,000; $25,550-$64,000) for contradicting official accounts of militant attacks. The original draft of the law was amended following domestic and international outcry after it initially called for a two-year prison sentence

There are however reservations from Right Groups who believe that the new laws would also be used as a ploy to gag dissents and opposition members.

Last week,Amnesty International warned that the legislation would vastly expand powers that would usually only be invoked during a state of emergency, and that it would effectively ban the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.

"This new law will become yet another tool for the authorities to crush all forms of dissent and steamroll over basic human rights," said the group's acting Middle East and North Africa director, Said Boumedouha.

Hundreds of members of Egypt's security forces have been killed by militant attacks in the restive Sinai peninnsula.

The insurgency has intensified since Mr Sisi, then commander-in-chief of the armed forces, ousted Mr Morsi after mass protests against his rule.