Egyptian television personality Sarah Khalifa, once known for her polished public image and high-profile media career, is now awaiting her fate inside a prison widely associated with human rights abuses after being sentenced to death by hanging.
Khalifa, 39, was among 12 defendants convicted by a Cairo court on Saturday in a major narcotics case involving the manufacture and trafficking of drugs.
The presenter rose to fame through her television programme ‘Mission Impossible’, a show focused on security matters and crime-related issues.
Before her arrest in April last year, Khalifa had built a following of 2.6million on Instagram, where she shared images from trips across Europe and promoted her cosmetic surgery clinic.
Her case is now in legal limbo, with her lawyer seeking to challenge the verdict through an appeal.
In the meantime, Khalifa, who denies the charges against her, is being kept in the notorious Badr Prison Complex, about 40 miles northeast of Cairo.
Since opening in 2021, the complex has repeatedly been accused of ‘egregious and collective violations of human rights’ by international organisations.
Within the prison, inmates are allegedly subjected to sexual harassment, electric shocks, and a range of torture techniques, including being chained to the walls for days without food or water.
Sarah Khalifa and 11 others were sentenced to death by hanging on charges of manufacturing, promoting and trading synthetic drugs, as well as possessing and carrying firearms and ammunition without a licence
Khalifa is best known for her programme ‘Mission Impossible’, which dealt with issues concerning security and crime
Khalifa, who owns a production company, was also sentenced to five years in prison over a case involving the kidnapping and assault of a young man
Khalifa and 11 others were sentenced to death by hanging on charges of manufacturing, promoting and trading synthetic drugs, as well as possessing and carrying firearms and ammunition without a licence.
The state-linked al-Ahram newspaper said the trial was based on 20 witness statements and photographic evidence of Khalifa’s alleged criminal activities.
The defendants are accused of using two apartments as laboratories to ‘store and manufacture the drugs’.
According to the public prosecution, ‘investigators seized more than 750 kilograms of synthetic narcotics and raw materials used in their production’.
The verdict is not final at this stage and Khalifa’s legal counsel, Dr Mohamed El-Gindi, is appealing the verdict.
He told the Daily Mail that there are ‘serious legal and procedural issues concerning the proceedings and the evidence relied upon in reaching the judgment’.
In the meantime, he confirmed his client is being detained in the Badr Prison Complex, where he is concerned about her ‘physical and psychological wellbeing’.
In 2023, 38 global human rights organisations came together to condemn the complex, which is composed of four main facilities: Badr 1, Badr 2, Badr 3, and a specialised centre for women.
They cited recent reports of numerous suicide attempts and hunger strikes among detainees due to the ‘nature and scale of abuses taking place’.
The charities alleged that torture was commonplace, from guards maintaining bright lights in cells for 24 hours, to chaining prisoners to walls without food and water for days at a time.
Inmates have reported receiving electric shocks if they make requests for improved conditions.
In October 2022, Omar Mohamed Ali, a prisoner, was subjected to sexual harassment by prison security personnel after being transferred to Badr prison, the charities said.
Visitation rights are reportedly granted arbitrarily and enforcing them is effectively up to the discretion of security guards.
In some cases, prisoners have allegedly been denied visitations for years on end, and prison authorities refuse to transfer medications and personal belongings sent by family members to inmates.
The charities claimed that inmates face court hearings online from within the prison, where they are not granted physical access to the court and free access to their lawyers.
Khalifa, who denies the charges against her, is being kept in the notorious Badr Prison Complex, about 40 miles northeast of Cairo as she awaits her fate
In October 2022, Omar Mohamed Ali, a prisoner, was subjected to sexual harassment by prison security personnel after being transferred to Badr prison, the charities said
Khalifa, 39, denies the charges against her and her legal counsel is appealing the verdict
The Badr Prison Complex was opened shortly after the authorities launched Egypt’s National Human Rights Strategy in September 2021, which hailed the authorities’ purported efforts at modernising jails and upholding inmates’ dignity.
In mid-2022, the government started relocating prisoners from the ill-reputed Tora Prison Complex into the new facilities, but reports of mistreatment swiftly followed.
After less than a year of opening, at least four deaths were reported, and in at least three of those cases, authorities failed to respond to calls for medical assistance, the charities alleged.
‘Prisoners are held in horrific and punitive conditions comparable to or even worse than those consistently documented at Egypt’s notorious Tora Prison Complex,’ claimed Amnesty International in October 2022.
‘Detainees shiver in cold cells with fluorescent lights switched on round the clock; CCTV cameras are trained on them at all hours; and access to basic necessities such as sufficient food, clothing and books is banned.’
One detainee in Badr 3 said he was kept under constant surveillance, including during visits to the bathroom where guards taunted him for taking too long.
Prison staff also bar prisoners from sending letters to their families or loved ones, or even receiving them, effectively subjecting them to ‘incommunicado detention’, the NGO claimed.
It added that prison officials prevent relatives from delivering food, clothing and items for personal hygiene.
One relative of a Badr 3 detainee told the organisation that she tried to deliver clothes, books and food to the facility, but was told by guards that such items were not permitted.
When she told prison officials that prisoners have a right to receive them, they said ‘prisoners here have no rights’.
The digital hearing system, where detainees are not physically present in the same courtroom as judges, lawyers and prosecutors, has also raised alarms.
‘Such hearings violate fair trial rights including the rights to adequate defence and to meaningfully challenge the legality of their detention,’ said Amnesty International.
‘They take place under coercive circumstances in the presence of prison guards and detainees are prevented from communicating with their lawyers, given the ban on lawyer visits to prison.
‘Further, they expose detainees to risks of reprisals from guards for complaining about torture or other ill-treatment and impede the ability of judges to spot visible bruises or other injuries.’
In August 2024, 10 human rights charities penned an open letter condemning the ‘recent and rapid deterioration of conditions’ inside the prison.
‘We are alarmed by recent reports of suicide attempts and a mass hunger strike in response to widespread power cuts in Badr 1 prison, which have subjected prisoners to dangerous and life-threatening conditions,’ it said.
‘We are also alarmed by the reports of an ongoing hunger strike in Badr 3 prison due to collective violations of detainees’ rights.’
On May 25, 2024, authorities allegedly cut off electricity at Badr 1 amid an extreme heat wave for eight days, thrusting prisoners into ‘miserable, inhumane conditions threatening their health and wellbeing,’ the letter said.
In addition to suffering excessive heat, inmates were allegedly unable to use fans or warm up food provided by their families, and some detainees were trapped in their cells due to nonfunctioning automatic doors.
Despite the power cut, surveillance cameras monitoring detainees continued to operate, it is claimed, as did the constant fluorescent lighting.
Following the incident, inmates launched a hunger strike in protest, and some detainees allegedly attempted suicide.
Khalifa founded the company ‘Sarah Production’ and organised events and concerts inside Egypt and a number of Gulf countries
The Badr Prison Complex was opened shortly after the authorities launched Egypt’s National Human Rights Strategy in September 2021, which hailed the authorities’ purported efforts at modernising jails and upholding inmates’ dignity
Dramatic videos, purportedly from Khalifa’s trial, have circulated on social media, showing the television star allegedly screaming in distress as she was handed the death sentence.
In one clip, a woman, understood to be Khalifa, can be heard shouting: ‘I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life!’
In another, the woman screams ‘I swear to Almighty God, with the strongest oath, that I have been wronged!’ and begs for ‘mercy and humanity’.
‘I am aware of the footage,’ said Dr El-Gindi, Sarah’s legal counsel.
‘What can be said with certainty is that Sarah was under extraordinary psychological pressure during proceedings in which she was facing the possibility of a death sentence.
‘Any footage should be understood in that context and should not be used in isolation to draw conclusions about either her guilt or the merits of the defence.’
The ruling came after the court consulted the Grand Mufti of Egypt for his religious opinion, a procedure required by Egyptian law in capital cases.
At the trial, an additional nine defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment and a further seven were acquitted.
Two other defendants wanted in relation to the drug gang are still at large and have been placed on travel bans and watch lists, according to the prosecution.
The death penalty is used by Egyptian authorities for crimes including terrorism, premeditated murder, rape and drug trafficking.
According to Amnesty International, courts in the past have imposed death sentences ‘following grossly unfair trials’.
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms claimed that over 500 death sentences were issued last year.
The country executed 23 prisoners.
Production company owner Khalifa was also sentenced alongside others to five years in prison over a separate case involving the kidnapping and assault of a young man.
When the case first became public in April 2025, the Ministry of Interior announced the seizure of about 200 kilograms of narcotics and raw materials, as well as gold jewelry, sums of money in local and foreign currencies, and five cars, which it said were proceeds from criminal activity, estimating the value of those seizures at about £420million.
Further investigations showed that the total amount of drugs and raw materials seized in the case exceeded 750 kilograms.
Egyptian reports estimated their market value, following manufacturing, at more than one billion.
Khalifa founded the company ‘Sarah Production’ and organised events and concerts inside Egypt and a number of Gulf countries.
She presented the programme ‘Sarah and Beka’ on YouTube in 2024, along with the festival performer Hamo Beka, which hosted artists and celebrities.
She is associated with a beauty centre in the Agouza area of Cairo, whose services she promotes online.
Khalifa’s legal counsel, Dr Mohamed El-Gindi (pictured), is appealing the verdict
‘Our position is not merely an emotional objection to the sentence. We have identified substantial matters which, in our legal assessment, affected the fairness and validity of the trial proceedings,’ Dr El-Gindi said.
‘These matters will form an important part of our challenge to the judgment before the competent appellate court.
‘The death sentence should not be understood as meaning that Sarah is facing an imminent execution.
‘The judgment is subject to appeal, and we will exercise all available legal remedies.’
He said the defence is preparing the appeal and will challenge both the conviction and the death sentence.
‘Our objective is not simply to seek a reduction of the sentence; we will ask the appellate court to examine the case in its entirety, including the procedural violations and the evidence upon which the conviction was based.’
He concluded: ‘I would also emphasise an important legal point: this case is not over. A judgment at this stage should not be treated internationally as the final word on Sarah Khalifa’s guilt or fate.
‘The defence has serious objections to the proceedings, and those objections will now be placed before the appellate judiciary.’
