CAIRO, Aug 15 (Aswat Masriya) – The defence team of former president Mohamed Mursi filed an appeal on Monday against prison sentence handed to the ousted president in the 'espionage for Qatar' case.

Mursi was sentenced in June to 40 years in prison, while six of his co-defendants were handed death penalties in the same case, in which they were convicted of leaking important national security documents and information on the Egyptian Armed Forces to Qatar during Mursi's tenure.

The lawyers requested a re-trial for all the defendants in the case, saying that the “court violated the rights of the defense team” and that there were errors in the application of the law.  

The former president was sentenced to life in prison (25 years) for leading an unlawful organisation, and another 15-year jail term for leaking classified documents concerning state security.

The court however acquitted Mursi of charges of having supplied Qatar with classified documents.

The six defendants who received death sentences include a documentary filmmaker Ahmed Afifi, a flight attendant Mohamed Kilany and a teaching assistant in the Misr University for Sciences and Technology Ahmed Ismail.

Asmaa al-Khatb, reporter for RASSD news network, along with Alaa Sablan and Ibrahim Helal, who both work for Qatari Al Jazeera channel, also received death sentences.  

Egyptian-Qatari ties have been strained since Mursi's ouster, with the authorities replacing Mursi's regime viewing Qatar as a Brotherhood sympathiser. 

The former president, who was ousted in 2013, received a death sentence for escaping Wadi al-Natroun prison, a life sentence in another espionage case and a 20-years prison sentence for inciting and demonstrating violence in the "Presidential Palace Clashes" case.