A Cairo criminal court issued death sentences on Tuesday against two jihadists who returned to Egypt from Libya after finding them guilty of "joining a militant organisation", Al-Ahram reported on its website.
Egypt's most senior Muslim cleric will now review the death sentences handed to the defendants as required by law, Al-Ahram said.
The grand mufti's opinion is not binding upon the court.
A final verdict is set for 5 November for the two defendants as well as 14 other defendants in the same trial.
Egypt's prosecutor general in February last year ordered the defendants to stand trial for involvement in terrorist acts outside Egypt and plotting to attack targets inside Egypt. They were arrested at the Libyan border.
The security threat to neighbouring countries posed by militants fleeing Libya was highlighted by Tunisia's defence minister Farhat Hachani and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian at a meeting of defence and military officials in Paris last month.
Hachani and Le Drian urged countries to forge a cooperation strategy to tackle the problem of militants returning from Libya.
Egypt launched a strike against IS militants in Libya in February 2015 after the killing of 21 Egyptian Copts there by the radical Sunni group.
