Egyptian television personality Sarah Khalifa, 39, has been sentenced to death by hanging alongside 11 others after a Cairo court convicted them of manufacturing and trafficking synthetic drugs. Khalifa, known for her programme "Mission Impossible" and with 2.6 million Instagram followers, denies the charges and is appealing, but in the meantime is being held at Egypt's Badr Prison Complex, a facility repeatedly condemned by international human rights groups for torture, sexual harassment and abuse of inmates.

Khalifa and her co-defendants were convicted on charges including manufacturing, promoting and trading synthetic narcotics, and possessing unlicensed firearms, with prosecutors saying investigators seized more than 750kg of synthetic drugs and raw materials from two apartments used as laboratories. She was also handed a separate five-year sentence over a kidnapping and assault case. Her lawyer, Dr Mohamed El-Gindi, says there are serious legal and procedural flaws in the case and has raised concerns for her wellbeing at Badr, where 38 human rights organisations reported in 2023 that detainees faced prolonged chaining without food or water, electric shocks, sexual harassment and restricted access to lawyers and family visits.