Egypt's ex-chief auditor Hisham Geneina free after serving five years in prison for 'spreading fake news'

Former head of Egypt's auditing watchdog Hisham Geneina has been released Tuesday evening after he had served a five-year prison sentence for spreading false news, local news outlets reported.

His daughter, Shorouk Geneina, posted photos online of her father smiling while posing for the camera outside his home in the capital Cairo.

In April 2018, an Egyptian military court sentenced Geneina to five years in prison for spreading fake news about the army and the country's internal affairs.

Geneina, also a former judge, was a leading campaigner in Anan's short-lived 2018 presidential campaign before Anan was banned from running in the elections by the National Elections Authority for being an active member of the military.

He was arrested shortly after claiming in an interview with a news outlet that Anan possessed sensitive documents incriminating state officials. Geneina was attacked by unidentified men outside his home weeks before his arrest.

Annan himself was arrested shortly after he had announced his intention to run for the presidential elections against current Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi back in 2018.

Geneina was earlier sacked from his position as the head of the central auditing agency, the country's main anti-corruption agency after he had claimed that widespread graft had cost Egypt 600 billion Egyptian pounds in 2015.