A senior Egyptian opposition figure has been arrested in Cairo after claiming to know of "secret" files showing that members of the government were involved in violent repression during the 2011 Egyptian revolution., as a pre-election crackdown on politcal dissent continued.

Hisham Genena was Egypt’s anti-corruption chief until he was sacked and prosecuted in 2016 for exposing widespread government fraud and became a prominent government critic.

He later joined the campaign of Sami Anan, a former army general who planned to run against Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in the March presidential election.

Mr Anan was arrested on January 23 and days later Mr Genena was attacked in a Cairo street by men he said were working on behalf of the government.

Mr Genena’s sister, Enas, told The Telegraph that dozens of police had come to his home in New Cairo at around noon on Tuesday.

“He was arrested around an hour and a half ago,” she said. “A lot of police and soldiers were waiting in front of the house since this morning. He prepared his bag yesterday as he was anticipating something like this.”