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In Egypt, well-known television presenter Sarah Khalifa has been sentenced to death along with 11 others in a major case involving drug manufacture and trafficking.
According to reports carried in the state-run press on Saturday, the 39-year-old Khalifa was known for her programme Mission Impossible, which covered security and crime issues.
State-affiliated newspaper Al-Ahram reported that a court in Cairo convicted Khalifa and the 11 other defendants of offences including “forming an organised criminal group to procure substances used in drug manufacture for the purpose of trafficking, and possessing and transporting unlicensed firearms and ammunition”, and handed them death sentences.
The verdict was announced after consultation with Egypt’s Grand Mufti for a religious opinion, in line with the procedures laid down in Egyptian law for capital cases. The court’s ruling can be appealed.
State media outlet Akhbar El-Yom said that Khalifa, who also owns a cosmetic clinic and an events company, and the other defendants were accused of “importing raw materials used in production from abroad to manufacture synthetic drugs and trade in them”.
El-Ahram said law enforcement officers seized more than 750 kilogrammes of drugs and raw materials during the raids, as well as two flats used as laboratories and numerous unlicensed firearms and rounds of ammunition.
The court also sentenced Khalifa and some of the defendants to five years in prison each in a separate case over the abduction and assault of a young man.
In Egypt, the death penalty is applied in cases of premeditated murder, terrorism, certain sexual assault offences and drug trafficking. According to figures from the Egyptian Rights and Freedoms Commission, 541 death sentences were handed down in the country in 2025.
Additional sources • AFP