Military court to hear appeal of former auditing chief Hesham Geneina’s 5-year sentence on Wednesday

A military appeals court will hold a hearing on Wednesday to review an ongoing appeal by former Central Auditing Authority head Hesham Geneina against a five-year prison sentence he was handed on April 24 on charges of spreading false news.

The hearing on Wednesday comes after a brief delay in the appeal process, Shorouk told Mada Masr on Monday morning.

On November 7, when the court was schedule to deliver a verdict, the case was instead reopened, due to a request by Geneina’s defense team — which includes lawyers Hossam Lofty and Farid al-Deeb, the defense attorney representing former President Hosni Mubarak and his family  — to have a transcript of journalist Moataz Wadnan’s testimony from a separate case presented to the court.

At the heart of the legal proceedings against Geneina are comments he made during a February interview with Wadnan, a HuffPost Arabi journalist.

In the interview, Geneina put forth claims that detained former Chief of Staff Sami Anan — who was arrested following an announcement of his intention to run in Egypt’s presidential election in March — had documents implicating the Egyptian government in post-2011 violence. In his announcement on January 20, Anan said Geneina would become his vice president if he were successful, but later denied this claim.

Geneina was arrested in February, following a statement by the military which accused him of intending to “sow doubts about the state at a time when it is engaging in a counterterrorism operation in North Sinai.”

Wadnan, who was arrested that same month, is currently detained and being investigated by the Supreme State Security Prosecution for charges of joining an illegal organization and spreading false news.

Shorouk Geneina added that the court has barred Geneina’s family from attending the hearing, although they had been allowed to be present during previous hearings.