CAIRO, Apr 6 (Aswat Masriya) - An Egyptian criminal court fined the former head of the Central Auditing Authority Hisham Geneina, who was recently dismissed by the president after making statements on purported government corruption, on a charge of defaming a former justice minister.

Geneina was fined EGP 20,000 (around $2,251) 

Geneina, along with a journalist at Al Wafd newspaper, Tahany Ibrahim, and the paper's editor, Magdy Sarhan, were charged with defamation of Adel Abdel Hamid in the light of an article published in the newspaper in September 2013.

The article, which was written by Ibrahim, was based on statements Geneina had made earlier about Abdel Hamid, accusing him of corruption. 

The court also fined Ibrahim and Sarhan EGP 20,000 and EGP 10,000 respectively.

The verdict is subject to appeal before Egypt's highest court, the Court of Cassation.

Geneina had stirred up a media frenzy last December when he told Egyptian media that the size of governmental corruption in the period between 2012 and 2015 was EGP 600 billion (around $75 billion). In response, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered that a cabinet-affiliated commission be formed to probe Geneina's allegations.