RELIGION

Egypt court recommends death for 2 Al-Jazeera employees

Associated Press
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FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, file photo Ahmed Douma, one of the leading activists behind Egypt's 2011 uprising, attends a court hearing in a case against 230 people including Douma, for taking part in clashes between protesters and security forces, in a courtroom of Torah prison, Cairo, Egypt. Douma was sentenced to life last year for taking part in clashes between protesters and security forces in late 2011. His life sentence is the heaviest to date to be handed down by a court to any of the secular activists who spearheaded the 2011 uprising. (AP Photo/Mohammed El-Raaei) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this April 1, 2011 photo, activist Ahmed Douma, left, chants slogans as activist Khaled ElSayed, right, supports him, during a march to Tahrir Square demanding the prosecution of members of former President Hosni Mubarak's regime in Cairo, Egypt. Secular activist Ahmed Douma, 27, was one of the leading activists behind the country’s Jan. 25-Feb. 11, 2011 uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak and was later a fierce critic of the Muslim Brotherhood during Morsi’ rule. He was sentenced to life last year for taking part in clashes between protesters and security forces in late 2011. (AP Photo/Sarah Carr, File) (The Associated Press)

An Egyptian court has recommended the death sentence against six people, including two Al-Jazeera employees, for allegedly passing documents related to national security to Qatar and the Doha-based TV network during the rule of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

A verdict on Morsi, ousted by the military in 2013, and four other defendants in the case, will be announced June 18.

The two Al-Jazeera employees — identified by the judge on Saturday as news producer Alaa Omar Mohammed and news editor Ibrahim Mohammed Hilal — were sentenced in absentia.

Judge Mohammed Shireen Fahmy says case documents pertaining to all six would be sent to the Grand Mufti, Egypt's top religious authority, for his review.

The Mufti's opinion is not binding and the six will be sentenced alongside the other five defendants.