The News
Friday 29 of March 2024

Egypt military court upholds sentence against former auditor


AP Photo, Hesham Genena,FILE -- In this April 16, 2014 file photo, Hesham Genena, then head of Egypt's oversight body, poses for a portrait in front of pictures of his predecessors at his office in Cairo, Egypt. Ali Taha, an Egyptian lawyer, said Sunday, March 3, 2019, that a military appeals court has upheld a five-year sentence against Genena, the country's former auditor for disseminating false news against the military. Genena can still challenge the ruling a final time at Egypt's highest military court of appeals. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
AP Photo, Hesham Genena,FILE -- In this April 16, 2014 file photo, Hesham Genena, then head of Egypt's oversight body, poses for a portrait in front of pictures of his predecessors at his office in Cairo, Egypt. Ali Taha, an Egyptian lawyer, said Sunday, March 3, 2019, that a military appeals court has upheld a five-year sentence against Genena, the country's former auditor for disseminating false news against the military. Genena can still challenge the ruling a final time at Egypt's highest military court of appeals. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian lawyer says a military appeals court has upheld a five-year sentence against the country’s former auditor for disseminating false news about the military.

Ali Taha says Sunday Hesham Genena can still challenge the ruling a final time at Egypt’s highest military court of appeals.

Genena was arrested in February last year following incendiary comments in which he claimed that the former chief-of-staff, Sami Annan, was in possession of documents incriminating the country’s leadership. He said the documents were kept abroad. He was sentenced to five years in prison in April for insulting the armed forces.

Annan himself was arrested in January shortly after he announced his intention to challenge President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in last year’s election, which the president won with 97 percent of the vote.