A flashy Egyptian TV presenter sentenced to death for running a drug trafficking ring is set to launch a desperate appeal — as she begs to halt her execution.
“Mission Impossible” host Sarah Khalifa, 39, was among 12 people sentenced in Cairo, Egypt, on Saturday after her tearful plea in which she claimed she didn’t need “drug money” fell on deaf ears.
Her lawyer, Mohamed El-Gendy, has since confirmed the verdict will be appealed, National News reported Monday.
But Khalifa, who has 2.6 million Instagram followers, faces a complex battle to get her sentence commuted or overturned entirely.
If an appeal is launched, a higher Egyptian court will hear the evidence stacked against Khalifa.
They could uphold the death penalty ruling that was issued by the Cairo criminal court.
Alternatively, the court could reduce or overturn the sentence.
If the court upholds the sentence, then Khalifa’s lawyer could go to the Egyptian Court of Cassation – which is essentially the Arab nation’s supreme court.
The court doesn’t consider new evidence but only reviews appeals based on any legal discrepancies that may have arisen.
Egypt’s Court of Cassation has precedence in overturning death penalty sentences.
Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s former president, had his death sentence quashed in 2016 – one year after being sentenced for his role in a 2011 prison break that saw the nation’s then-president Honsi Mubarak removed from office. A retrial was ordered.
The previous year, the court overturned the death sentences of 36 members of the Muslim Brotherhood.
But the court has also upheld capital punishment sentences.
In 2021, 12 people — including members of the Muslim Brotherhood — were sentenced to death following a mass trial over demonstrations that took place in Cairo’s Rabaa El Adawiya square in the summer of 2013, Amnesty International revealed.
Egypt was one of seven countries across the Arab world known to have carried out executions last year, according to the renowned human rights group.
Some 541 death sentences were handed out by officials in 2025, according to the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms.
Capital punishment in the country is reserved for a select number of crimes, including drug trafficking, terrorism, premeditated murder, and certain rape cases.
Khalifa, her brother, Mohamed, and 10 others were among those sentenced to death. They were convicted of running an organized gang that imported raw materials to make drugs.
Gang members stored the supplies in properties and divided up roles from sourcing to manufacturing and distributing, prosecutors said.
More than 1,650 pounds of narcotics were seized by the authorities as part of the investigation, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported.
Khalifa, a cosmetic clinic owner, was arrested and charged last April despite claiming she had “never smoked a cigarette” in her life.
On top of the 12 sentenced to death, nine others were hit with life imprisonment sentences. Seven others were acquitted.
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