Egypt’s former auditor and member of campaign team of arrested presidential hopeful Sami Annan has been referred to a military court for making statements deemed harmful to the army.
Hisham Geneina will stand trial on April 16 on charges of “spreading news that harms the armed forces,” according to his lawyer, Ali Taha.
Geneina was detained in February ahead of March Presidential elections. He was member of the campaign of former Chief of Staff who has been also detained over breaching military rule after he announced his candidacy for the elections.
Speaking in an interview with Huffpost Arabi, Geneina claimed that Annan was in possession of documents kept secret abroad and which damn the army. The documents in point “revolved around political events and crises Egyptian society has passed through” since the January 2011 uprising which toppled veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak”, Geneina noted.
The former Chief of the anti-corruption organization has become an arch critic of the al-Sisi regime that he said closed eyes on corruption dealings that cost Egypt billions of dollars in 2015. He was dismissed in 2016.
Few days before the interview and his arrest, Geneina was attacked by armed man who attempted at his life.
He joined Annan and other prominent political figures in calling for the boycott of the elections that they deemed unfair.
Moataz Wadnan, the journalist who conducted the interview has also been arrested, AFP reports.
