Jordanians sentenced to death over 173 kg of hashish
A court in El Tor, South Sinai, imposed death sentences on 12 November 2009 over 173 kg of hashish found hidden in a truck's tyres at the Red Sea port of Nuweiba in January. The BBC reported four Jordanians sentenced while the AFP report said three, and the verdicts required the Grand Mufti's ratification.
A court in El Tor (al-Tor), in the south of the Sinai peninsula, sentenced Jordanian hashish traffickers to death on 12 November 2009 for trying to smuggle hashish into Egypt earlier that year.[1][2]Security officials had stopped the driver’s truck at the Red Sea port of Nuweiba in January and found 173 kilograms of hashish concealed in its tyres.[1][2]
The driver identified three other Jordanians as his accomplices, and all four were tried on drug-trafficking charges.[1]Only the driver was present in court for the verdict while the others were sentenced in their absence.[1][2]The BBC reported four death sentences, while the AFP report said three; the report uses the BBC’s figure.[2][1]The verdicts have to be approved by Egypt’s Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa, before any execution can go ahead.[1][2]
Context
In December 2008 another Egyptian court had sentenced three Syrian men to death by hanging for trafficking heroin and opium.[1][2]Egypt applies the death penalty infrequently: the London-based rights group Amnesty International said only one person was executed in 2007.[1][2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The Alexandria Criminal Court sentenced a worker to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and a EGP 50,000 fine for hashish trafficking. Officers had arrested him in First Ameriya with 400 hashish slabs weighing about 18 kilograms.
The Cairo Criminal Court sentenced a housewife and an unemployed man to 10 years of aggravated imprisonment for possessing hashish and unlicensed weapons with intent to traffic in Helwan. Police arrested the pair after finding 70 grams of hashish, a shotgun, ammunition, a bladed weapon and cash.
Cairo Criminal Court acquitted a 38-year-old man at the retrial of proceedings against his in-absentia sentence of 15 years' aggravated imprisonment and a 50,000-pound fine over eight pieces of hashish weighing 164 grams found in frozen meat at Cairo airport. Investigators said he hid the drugs in his neighbour's bag without her knowledge to smuggle them to an Arab country.
The Ninth Circuit of the Asyut Criminal Court sentenced three defendants from Dronka village to six years of rigorous imprisonment each for forming and running a narcotics trafficking gang. In January 2026 arrests in Dronka, police seized 21 pieces of hashish weighing 19.30 grams from one defendant's home alongside methamphetamine, heroin and tramadol held across the group.