An Egyptian television host with more than 2.6 million social media followers has been sentenced to death on charges of manufacturing and trafficking drugs.
A court in Cairo sentenced 12 defendants, including television presenter Sara Khalifa, 39, to death by hanging, CNN and AFP reported on the 8th.
The defendants were tried on charges including forming a criminal organization to import raw materials from abroad for the manufacture and distribution of synthetic drugs, and possessing unlicensed firearms and ammunition. Each defendant sentenced to death was also fined 500,000 Egyptian pounds, or about 13.2 million won.
Nine other defendants tried in the case received life sentences, while seven were acquitted.
Khalifa built her name as the host of "Mission Impossible," a television program dealing with security and crime. She also runs a cosmetic surgery clinic and a party and event planning company, and has more than 2.6 million Instagram followers.
Investigators believe Khalifa and the others imported raw materials from overseas to produce and distribute synthetic drugs. More than 750 kilograms of drugs and raw materials were found at locations including two apartments used to manufacture and store the narcotics. Unlicensed firearms and ammunition were also seized.
Evidence submitted during the trial included testimony from 20 witnesses as well as wiretap recordings, photographs and video.
Khalifa denied the charges throughout the trial. According to CNN, video of the sentencing that spread on social media showed her in tears, appealing to the court for mercy and humanity.
She said she had never smoked a single cigarette in her life and swore to God that she had been wronged.
Egypt imposes and carries out the death penalty for certain serious crimes, including drug trafficking, premeditated murder and terrorism. Counts of death sentences handed down in the country last year vary by source. Amnesty International recorded 492 death sentences, of which 23 were carried out. The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, another human rights group, put the number of death sentences over the same period at 541.
