Newsdeck

Newsdeck

Egypt former anti-corruption tsar gets 5-year jail term

The former head of the Central Auditing Organisation (CAO) Hisham Geneina looks after The new Cairo court postponed his trial to 21 June, Cairo, Egypt, 07 June 2016. Geneina, who held Egypt's top auditor position for four years and was reliefed from the position by a presidential decree last March, is facing charges of publishing false information that could disrupt the public order. The charges came after Geneina published a report that claims some 600 billion Egyptian pounds (675 million dollars) were wasted due to corruption in 2015. EPA/ALMASRY ALYOUM EGYPT OUT

An Egyptian military court Tuesday sentenced a former anti-corruption chief, Hisham Geneina, to five years in jail after he said a presidential candidate had secret documents allegedly damaging to the army, his lawyer said.

An Egyptian military court Tuesday sentenced a former anti-corruption chief, Hisham Geneina, to five years in jail after he said a presidential candidate had secret documents allegedly damaging to the army, his lawyer said.

“The verdict is five years, and we’re doing the appeal (procedure) now,” lawyer Ali Taha said.

The military detained Geneina in February accusing him of “spreading news that harms the armed forces” following an interview he gave to Huffpost Arabi, the Arabic version of the US news site.

Taha said he was convicted on the same charge.

Geneina had been a top campaign aide to General Sami Anan, a former armed forces chief of staff whom the military also detained after he announced he would stand in last month’s presidential election against Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who swept to victory for a second term.

Geneina had said Anan allegedly possessed documents on “political events and crises that Egyptian society has passed through” since the 2011 uprising which toppled veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.

He said the documents were being held at a “secure” location abroad and could be released if Anan was harmed.

Moataz Wadnan, the journalist who conducted the interview, was also arrested.

Geneina, a qualified judge, was sacked by Sisi as head of the Central Auditing Authority in 2016 after he was accused of exaggerating the cost of corruption in Egypt. DM

Gallery

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Become a Maverick Insider

This could have been a paywall

On another site this would have been a paywall. Maverick Insider keeps our content free for all.

Become an Insider

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.