ISMAILIA: The Ismailia Criminal Court sentenced a Saudi man to death on Monday for trying to smuggle drugs into the country, a judicial source said.
The judge referred the sentence to the mufti, the government’s official interpreter of Islamic law, for confirmation — a formality as the mufti rarely contradicts death sentences.
The sentence can be appealed after the mufti approves it.
The Saudi man, 40-year-old Lafi Munthir Farhan Al-Shimiri, was arrested last year in the Nuweiba port with 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of cocaine in his car. He was traveling from Jordan.
Dealing drugs can be punishable by death in Egypt. The sentence is carried out by hanging.