An awaited interview with Hesham Genena has raised many controversial views in the past months as it was considered the first interview after he had decided to boycott the media.
But despite the enormous propaganda held for the interview it wasn’t streamed.
The owner of al-Mehwar TV Satellite Hassan Rateb asked Moataz al-Demerdash -the talk show presenter who interviewed Hesham Genena – to stream another episode that was recorded with a football player instead of streaming Genena’s episode.
In response, AL-Demerdash refused and he said that he won’t present the episode and he left the studio angrily, according to al-Shorouk, an independent newspaper.
According to a source cited by Masr al-Arabia, some security entities (unnamed by the source) informed Hassan Rateb the head of al-Mehwar TV not to stream the recorded interview with Hesham Genena except after watching the episode. The source said that the security entities watched the episode and they allowed its streaming on al-Mehwar and it is expected to be streamed on November 5, if nothing new appeared.
Hesham Genena, the former head of the Central Auditing Organization (CAO), or the “Anti-corruption czar” as called by the New York Times, was doing his job when stated how much endemic graft had cost his country, but Genena’s statement” turned out, was itself a criminal offense,’ reported the NYT.
Genena had stated in the Egyptian media that the size of governmental corruption during the period between 2012 and 2015 amounted to EGP 600 billion ($67.7 billion). His statements were based on findings of a detailed study conducted by the CAO.
The state-owned and pro-regime media accused Genena of spreading false news and being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Moreover, Genena and his family have been subject to a campaign of defamation on pro-government television channels in an effort to discredit him, ranging from accusations that he belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood to suggestions that his wife supported Hamas because she is of Palestinian origin.
Genena said that he was misquoted, that the figure covered four years and that it reached following an exhaustive study. A newspaper quoted him in December
as saying corruption cost the country 600 billion Egyptian pounds ($67.6 billion) in 2015.
Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi dismissed Genena from his position as head of the Central Auditing Organization last March after a commission, formed by him (Sisi) investigated Genena’s report, concluding that he had misled the public.
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