Hisham Geneina, Egypt s former chief auditor and a leading aide of detained ex-military chief-of-staff Sami Anan, was arrested on Tuesday, just hours after the Egyptian army said it would take legal action against the two men over claims relating to secret state documents.
Ali Taha, Geneina s lawyer, told Ahram Online that Geneina was arrested by police at his house in New Cairo s First Settlement. Taha said it was unclear if Geneina was going to be questioned by the military prosecution.
The former anti-corruption chief was a leading figure in Anan s brief election campaign before he was barred from running in the March presidential vote. Anan was detained by authorities last month, a week after announcing his candidacy.
Geneina s arrest on Tuesday follows a Monday night announcement from the army that it would seek to take legal action against the two men over claims relating to secret state documents.
In a interview with HuffPost Arabia, published on Sunday but blocked in Egypt, Geneina claimed that Anan possesses documents containing state secrets that could implicate many Egyptian officials in crimes if they were made public.
Geneina said Anan possesses documents and evidence about major deadly incidents and "political crimes" since the 2011 revolution and following the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.
He said the documents were kept abroad and would surface if Egyptian authorities tried to assassinate Anan, whom the army has accused of breaching laws by running for office without its consent.
The army has responded by saying the matter would be referred to investigators to take the necessary legal action against both former officials and that it would "use all constitutional and legal powers to preserve national security."
In a statement on Monday, the army said that Geneina s claims "amount to crimes and aim to raise doubts about the state and its institutions" at a time when the armed forces are waging a battle to uproot terrorism from the Sinai region.
An hour after the army s statement, Anan s lawyer Nasser Amin distanced his client from Geneina s controversial remarks.
In a statement on Facebook, he described Geneina s claims as "unfounded, untrue and bearing no relation to reality." The lawyer pledged to take legal action against anyone who has given or will give statements to the media "attributing any words or acts to Anan that would undermine [Anan s] legal status or expose him to the danger of legal or social liability."
"Any statements not made by Sami Annan in person are attributed to their owners and do not in any way express him," he said.
Two weeks ago, Geneina accused Egyptian authorities of being behind an assault that left him wounded while on his way to lodge an appeal against an electoral commission s decision to disqualify Anan from running in the presidential vote, scheduled for 26-28 March.
The interior ministry said at the time of the attack that Geneina hit a man with his car and that his doorman, wife and daughter assaulted what Geneina said were the attackers and tore off their clothes.
