CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's former top auditor was injured in a brawl Saturday with unidentified men outside his suburban Cairo home, according to security officials.
Hisham Genena was earlier this month named as one of two top aides to would-be presidential candidate Sami Annan, a former military chief of staff. Annan was arrested Tuesday by the military, which accused him of inciting against the military and forgery. He has not been heard of or publicly seen since his arrest.
The officials said Saturday's brawl followed a car collision involving Genena's vehicle. They said knives were used in the scuffle and that Genena sustained injuries to his face, head and leg.
Genena, a former judge, was headed to a court hearing on his appeal against his 2016 removal by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi from his job as head of the Central Auditing Organization.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
In 2015, Genena said corruption was costing the country billions of dollars. A pro-government daily quoted him as saying that Egypt wasted 600 billion pounds or ($67.6 billion) in corruption in 2015 alone. He later said he was misquoted and that his remarks referred to the last four-year period.
El-Sissi dismissed Genena in March 2016, following an investigation that hurriedly concluded the auditor had misled the public. The removal capped a series of measures critics say were aimed at sacking the chief auditor after speaking up against corruption.
Genena has been linked in the pro-government media to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group that was outlawed and declared a terrorist organization shortly after el-Sissi led the military's 2013 ouster of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader.
Morsi, a Brotherhood stalwart, named Genena to his post during his one year in office, which proved divisive.
