An Egyptian television presenter has been sentenced to death along with eleven others for manufacturing and trafficking drugs.
Sarah Khalifa is best known for her role in Mission Impossible, an Egyptian program about security issues crimeand has 2.5 million Instagram followers.
But on Saturday the 39-year-old was reportedly sentenced to ‘death by hanging’ by a Cairo court for her role in an organized crime gang.
State-affiliated newspaper Al-Ahram reported that Khalifa and 11 other suspects were convicted “on charges of forming an organized criminal gang specialized in producing materials used in the manufacture of narcotic drugs with the intention of trafficking them, and possessing and carrying firearms and ammunition without a permit.”
Egyptian authorities are said to have seized more than 750 kg of narcotics and raw materials. They also discovered two apartments used as laboratories, as well as unlicensed firearms and ammunition.
The dozens of defendants were accused of “manufacturing synthetic drugs with the intention of trafficking them, by importing the materials used in their production from abroad,” state media said.
The conviction was handed down this week after Egypt’s Grand Mufti was consulted for his religious views in a procedure required by Egyptian law in capital cases.
It is possible to appeal against the verdict.
Egyptian television presenter Sara Khalifa has reportedly been sentenced to death by hanging for her role in an organized crime gang
The 39-year-old leads her own Egyptian television show and has more than 2.5 million Instagram followers
Khalifa, a production company owner, was also sentenced to five years in prison over a case involving the kidnapping and assault of a young man.
Production company owner Khalifa was also sentenced to five years in prison along with others over a separate case involving the kidnapping and assault of a young man.
Egypt applies the death penalty for premeditated murder, terrorism, some rape crimes and drug trafficking.
According to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, there were some 541 death sentences in the country last year.
