Hyderabad, Sept. 6 -- Egyptian TV presenter Sarah Khalifa was among 12 people sentenced to death by hanging on Saturday after a Cairo Criminal Court convicted them in a major case involving the manufacture and trafficking of synthetic drugs, according to Egyptian media reports.

The court also sentenced nine defendants to life imprisonment and acquitted seven others, bringing the total number of people tried in the case to 28. State-linked Al-Ahram and state-run Akhbar Al-Youm reported that the proceedings have been widely referred to as the "major drugs case".

The defendants were accused of forming an organised criminal group that imported materials used to manufacture narcotics before producing and distributing the drugs in Egypt. They...