7.9.2026
A popular Egyptian television presenter Sarah Khalifa and 11 others have received the death sentences after being indicted in a major drug manufacturing and trafficking investigation.
According to reports by Al-Ahram the 39-year-old Khalifa was known for her programme Mission Impossible, which covered security and crime issues and was part of an organisation that “formed a criminal group to procure substances used in drug manufacture for the purpose of trafficking, possessing and transporting unlicensed firearms and ammunition.”
The court’s 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.
El-Ahram said law enforcement officers seized more than 750 kilograms 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.
Sarah Khalifa...tangled up in crime.