Former head of Egypt's Central Auditing Agency Hisham Geneina (Photo: Al-Ahram)
Egypt's State security prosecution referred the country's former top auditor Hisham Geneina to a misdemeanor court for spreading false news, shortly after he rejected to pay EGP 10,000 bail Thursday evening.
Geneina is accused of "spreading false news in order to disturb public order" over his report claiming that theft by public officials has cost the treasury EGP 600 billion since 2012.
Earlier on Thursday, according to Geneina's lawyer Ali Taha, the former top auditor refused to pay bail and warned his legal team against paying in it on his behalf.
In January, Egypt's prosecutor general issued a gag order on Geneina's report.
In March, a presidential decree dismissed Geneina from his post and appointed his deputy, Hesham Badawy, as the acting head of the Central Auditing Agency.
In the same month, the State Security prosecutors said that Geneina had exaggerated the sums lost to corruption by referring to violations that took place prior to 2012, and that he had abused his position as head auditor in gathering documents to make his case.
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