Egypt’s former anti-graft chief Hisham Geneina has walked free from jail after serving a five-year sentence following his conviction of insulting and spreading false news about the military, his family said.
His daughter, Shorouk Geneina, posted photos online of her father smiling while posing for the camera outside his suburban Cairo home on Tuesday. Two more images showed the pair hugging.
“Baba is finally out,” she wrote on Facebook.
A former judge, Mr Geneina was arrested in February 2018 after an interview he gave to a local media outlet in which he alleged that the military's former chief-of-staff, Gen Sami Annan, was in possession of documents incriminating the country’s leadership. He said the documents were kept abroad.
Gen Annan himself was arrested shortly after he announced his intention to challenge President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in the 2018 election won by the Egyptian leader.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison for fraudulently registering to vote, breaching military regulations and incitement against the armed forces.
He was released in December 2019 for health reasons.
Mr Geneina chaired the country’s top financial watchdog until Mr El Sisi fired him in 2016 following an investigation that concluded he misled the public on the scale of government corruption.
At the time, Mr Geneina said corruption had cost the country billions of dollars in 2015 alone. He later said he was misquoted by a local news outlet.
Separately, a prominent Egyptian architect who played a key role in Egypt’s 2011 uprising, returned to Egypt earlier this week after three years of self-imposed exile.
Mamdouh Hamza announced his arrival back in Egypt in a video posted online.
He was arrested in 2019 for spreading false news, but was released a day later on a 20,000-pound bail ($654). Fearing conviction and a prison sentence, he left the country soon after.
Mr Hamza was sentenced in absentia to six months in prison in October 2020 for using social media to incite acts of terrorism and of obstructing justice because of a tweet he posted urging residents of a Nile island in Cairo to resist government plans to evict them from their homes.
In January the judiciary issued a statement saying he had been removed from the country's list of terrorists, which he was added to for disturbing public order, and so there was no travel ban against him.
Shortly after arriving in Cairo, he posted a video saying he had been welcomed at the airport as “one of Egypt's loyal sons” by a senior army general and that he was “optimistic” about the direction of the country.
He is the latest opposition activist to freely return home since Mr El Sisi announced plans in April last year for a national dialogue to chart the country’s political future.
He has also since allowed a measure of freedom of expression after years in which authorities showed little tolerance for dissent. Mr El Sisi said that was necessary while the country faced a wave of terrorism in the early days of his eight-year rule.
Hundreds of critics held in pre-trial detention have also been released since April 2022. The proposed national dialogue, however, remains in its preparatory stages and no date has been announced for its start.
UAE squad
Rohan Mustafa (captain), Ashfaq Ahmed, Ghulam Shabber, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Boota, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Shaiman Anwar, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Qadeer Ahmed, Mohammed Naveed, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan
Andor
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Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Specs
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Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
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Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
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Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
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Abu Dhabi World Pro 2019 remaining schedule:
Wednesday April 24: Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship, 11am-6pm
Thursday April 25: Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship, 11am-5pm
Friday April 26: Finals, 3-6pm
Saturday April 27: Awards ceremony, 4pm and 8pm
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi
Director: Kangana Ranaut, Krish Jagarlamudi
Producer: Zee Studios, Kamal Jain
Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Ankita Lokhande, Danny Denzongpa, Atul Kulkarni
Rating: 2.5/5
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