The ruling is not final and can be appealed.

The 27-year-old defendant was found to have murdered El-Husseiny on 17 January in Desouk city in Kafr El-Sheikh, north of Cairo, while seeking to rob her.

The man, a tricycle vehicle driver, used a knife to force El-Husseiny onto a rooftop before stealing her earrings and other belongings and strangling her with her headscarf from behind when she tried to flee.

El-Husseiny, 21, was a student at the Faculty of Pharmacy at Kafr El-Sheikh University. El-Husseiny was honoured by the sports ministry after her team, Desouk Sporting Club, won the title in the Egypt-invented racquet sport of speedball in 2016 in Poland.

The victim’s family found her body with the scarf wrapped around her neck and failed to resuscitate her, the prosecution said in a statement in January.

She died in the hospital, police told the prosecution, and signs of injuries were found on her body and around her neck.

Deliberate murder is punishable by death, a life sentence or rigorous imprisonment, according to the Egyptian penal code. A life sentence in Egypt is 25 years in prison.

The man also faced charges of possessing a cold weapon without a license.

Deliberate murder committed alongside another felony and premeditated murder are both punishable by the death penalty, according to the law.