Prosecutors appealed on Tuesday a verdict acquitting former president Mohamed Morsi of espionage in the so-called “Qatar espionage case,” Aswat Masryia reported.  

Although Morsi was found innocent in June of espionage, he received 40 years in prison on charges of “leading a terrorist organisation” and “leaking state documents.”

Six of Morsi's co-defendants received the death sentence, four of them in absentia.

Morsi, who was ousted in July 2013, was charged with using his post to pass on classified documents to Qatar with the help of aides and Muslim Brotherhood figures.

Defendants faced charges of leaking secret information on general and military intelligence, including the armaments of the Armed Forces and other state secrets.

The six defendants sentenced to death are five men – Ahmed Abdo Afify, Mohamed Adel El-Kelany, Ahmed Ismail, Alaa Omar and Ibrahim Helal – and one woman – Asmaa El-Khateeb.

The defendants – Ahmed Afify, a documentary producer; Mohamed Kilany, a flight attendant; Ahmed Ismail, a teaching assistant; and Khaled Radwan and Asmaa El-Khatib, two journalists for pro-Brotherhood TV channels – were charged with turning over copies of the classified documents to two staffers at the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera news network and an unknown Qatari intelligence officer.

Morsi has already been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in the “Ittihadiya case,” received a death sentence in the Wadi Natroun Prison jailbreak case, and a life sentence over leaks to “foreign groups,” including militant groups Hamas and Hizbullah. All his other sentences are currently being appealed.