A Cairo criminal court has sentenced Egyptian television presenter Sarah Khalifa, 39, and 11 others to death by hanging for manufacturing and trafficking synthetic narcotics, Egyptian state media reported. Nine additional defendants received life sentences, while seven were acquitted. The verdict, first announced last month, was formally confirmed only after the court obtained a mandatory religious opinion from Egypt's Grand Mufti — a procedural requirement under Egyptian law in all capital cases.
Khalifa is best known for hosting Mission Impossible, a programme on the private al-Mehwar channel that focused on crime and security affairs. She also ran a cosmetic surgery clinic, a production company specialising in events, and had built a following of more than 2.5 million on Instagram alone. Prosecutors accused her of leading a criminal gang of around 30 people that imported raw chemical ingredients from abroad to manufacture synthetic drugs on Egyptian soil, distributing them on such a scale that the influx of domestically produced narcotics reportedly drove down street prices. Authorities seized more than 750 kilograms of narcotics and raw materials, along with machinery found in two apartments being used as clandestine laboratories, as well as unlicensed firearms and ammunition. Evidence presented at trial included statements from 20 witnesses, alongside electronic communications and video footage.
Khalifa denied the charges throughout the proceedings. When asked by a judge during a court appearance last September about her alleged role, she said she had never seen any drugs until she was photographed with them inside anti-narcotics authority offices. Khalifa and several co-defendants were also separately sentenced to five years in prison in a related case involving the kidnapping and assault of a young man. Her lawyer has confirmed she will appeal the death sentence; under Egyptian law, an accepted appeal triggers an entirely new trial.
The case is unfolding against a backdrop of significant concern about the use of capital punishment in Egypt. Egypt applies the death penalty for premeditated murder, terrorism, certain sexual offences, and drug trafficking. Human rights organisations have noted that applying the death penalty to drug offences does not meet international legal standards, which restrict its use to cases of intentional killing. Figures from 2025 recorded hundreds of death sentences issued in the country, with dozens carried out. The high-profile nature of Khalifa's case — a media personality publicly associated with law enforcement issues now facing the harshest sentence the law allows — has drawn considerable public attention both domestically and internationally.