Cairo Criminal Court has fined Egypt's former top auditor Hisham Geneina and a journalist and his editor-in-chief for defaming the former Minister of Justice Adel Abdel-Hamid in an interview which was published late last year.

The court fined each of the former head of the Central Auditing Authority, Geneia, and Al-Wafd Daily journalist Tahany Ibrahim EGP 20,000 each, and also fined the editor-in-chief  of Al-Wafd Magdy Sarhan EGP 10,000 - all for defaming Abdel-Hamid.

In an interview with Al-Wafd newspaper in December, 2015 Geneia accused Abdel-Hamid of breaking the law and stealing state funds during his tenure as a board member of Egypt Telecom company.

Abdel Abdel-Hamid  breifly served as minister of justice twice:  under the transitional periond following the 2011 revolution (from late 2011 until mid-2012) and again under another interim government following the ouster of Isalmist Mohamed Morsi (from mid-2013 until early 2014.)

Wednesday's sentence can be appealed.

The criminal court also ordered the three to pay EGP 101,000 as temporary compensation to the former minister who sued them for libel and slander.

Geneina was dismissed from his post by presidential decree a week ago, hours after the State Security Prosecution found his claims about corruption in Egypt’s most powerful institutions, including the police, judiciary and intelligence agencies, to be "inaccurate."