The six defendants who received death sentences include filmmaker Ahmed Afifi, flight attendant Mohamed Kilany, teaching assistant Ahmed Esmail, RASSD reporter Asmaa al-Khatb, and Al-Jazeera journalists Alaa Sablan and Ibrahim Helal.
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They are also accused of passing these documents to a Doha-based TV network, during the rule of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, prior to his forced removal from the position.
Three of the six condemned men were tried in absentia.
The mufti’s opinion is not legally binding but often taken into consideration.
Two of the journalists work for the Qatari-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera.
Egyptian law requires the mufti to sign off on death sentences.
The fact that Morsi has not been sentenced to death at this stage suggests that he will likely avoid receiving the death penalty in this case.
The eleven suspects were referred to court in September 2014, accused of seizing classified national security intelligence and delivering it to Qatari intelligence and the Qatari news network Al Jazeera, which Egyptian authorities consider to be an extention of Qatar’s foreign policy. Mursi and other Brotherhood leaders, as well as leading figures from the 2011 popular uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, many of them secular activists and journalists, are now in jail.
A verdict on Morsi, ousted by the military in July 2013 after one year in office, and four other defendants in the case, will be announced June 18, judge Mohammed Shirin Fahmy announced.
Another court sentenced him to 20 years in prison for clashes that erupted outside a presidential palace in December 2012 between his supporters and opponents, which killed up to 10 people.
Egypt’s relations with Qatar have been fraught with tension since the ouster of Morsi, who enjoyed the support of the tiny but wealthy Gulf state.
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An Al-Jazeera official said he is “an adviser” to the channel’s chairman.
