Hisham Genena, also spelled Geneina or Genina (Arabic: هشام جنينة; born 1954 in Daqahlia) is a former police officer, public prosecutor, judge, chief auditor, anti-corruption advocate, and vice-presidential candidate. Genena was deputy head of the Court of Cassation, Egypt's highest court of appeal, and head of the Egyptian public finance oversight body, the Central Auditing Organization (CAO) from 2012 to 2016. He was made famous for his anti-corruption statements, and a 350-page CAO report he leaked to the press in 2016 that detailed the high cost of corrupt land deals.^[1] This culminated in Genena's removal from office, and subsequent trials which ended in his incarceration two years later while running as a vice-presidential candidate.^[2][3] Genena was released in February 2023 after serving the five-year term.^[4]

Geneina joined progressive judges in the Independence of the Judiciary movement (tayyar istiqlal al-qada') in the 2000s, fighting against retreating judicial independence under president Hosni Mubarak.^[5] During the 2011 revolution the movement headed by Geneina called for the removal of Mubarak's last Minister of Justice,^[6] Mamdouh Marie, who had survived Mubarak's removal, he condemned the military trials of civilians, and along with the independence movement sought to try Marie after he left office for influencing the outcome of several cases of illicit gains and obstructing justice during his post.^[5]

Geneina was appointed as head of CAO by president Mohamed Morsi in September 2012.^[7] He was the agency's first head after the 2011 uprising, succeeding Mubarak era chairman, Gawdat al-Malt, who resigned more than a year earlier almost immediately after Mubarak was deposed.

Corruption cases lodged against Mubarak and his circle were still in court then, and anti-corruption groups called on Geneina to release information held by the CAO that could aid in their prosecution.^[8]

In January 2018, Hisham Genena was to run as vice-president in Sami Anan's bid to contest Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in the 2018 Egyptian presidential election. On 27 January 2018, Genena was attacked by three unidentified men outside his home.^[14] Anan was later arrested, and in an effort to put pressure on the government to release him, Genena threatened to reveal documents showing that army leaders played a role in encouraging social unrest after the Egyptian revolution of 2011, and mentioned documents abroad believed to be in the possession of the international lawyer Mahmoud Refaat who was the spokesman of Sami Anan and the director of his presidential campaign abroad. On 12 February, Genena was arrested,^[15] and later also Moataz Wadnan, the journalist who had interviewed him for the Huffington Post.^[16]

In April 2018, Geneina was sentenced to 5 years in prison for "insulting the military", a sentence which was upheld in March 2019.^[17]

In February 2023, Hicham Geneina was released after five years in prison for "terrorism" and "false information", then immediately prosecuted for the same charges by another Egyptian court This means that he can be arrested at any time is prosecuted in another case managed by the civil prosecutor's office of State Security.^[18]