CAIRO, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian court recommended on Tuesday execution of 13 defendants including eight Egyptians and five Yemenis over drug smuggling, state-run MENA news agency reported.
The Red Sea Criminal Court referred the files of the 13 defendants to the country's Grand Mufti, the top Islamic legal expert in religious rulings, for his non-binding opinion on their execution.
The court convicted them of smuggling heroin from Yemen to Egypt through the Red Sea shared by the two countries.
The Egyptian security forces busted a boat coming from Yemen to Egypt via the sea carrying five Yemenis with a large amount of heroin in their possession and also arrested the eight Egyptians waiting for the load.
The same court sentenced on Dec. 26 a British woman to three years in jail for smuggling Tramadol classified opiate painkillers into the country.
Egypt is combating prevailing drug smuggling and high rates of addictions, particularly over the past few years of political turmoil and relevant security challenges.
"About 10.4 percent of the population aged from 15 to 65 take drugs, while 2 percent are drug addicts. This means there are about 1.5 million addicts in Egypt, which is an alarming number," Director of Egypt's Drug Control and Addiction Treatment Fund Amr Osman told Xinhua in a previous interview.
Hashish, painkilling tablets such as Tramadol and Tamol, heroin and marijuana are the most prevailing types of drugs in Egypt.
