Former Egyptian PM Ahmed Shafiq reaches Cairo from Emirates

An informed source  said that Shafiq checked in a hotel in Cairo pending the end of work to prepare his home for his residence.

In the afternoon, Dina Adly, the lawyer of the former Egyptian prime minister, claimed in a post on her Facebook page that Shafiq was “deported” today from the UAE to Egypt.

However, earlier in the evening, Wamnews, the UAE official news agency, reported that Shafiq has left the Emirates returning to Cairo and his family remains in the country enjoying its care.

Shafiq had claimed late last week that the UAE was preventing him from leaving the country to return to Egypt. The UAE denied Shafiq’s claims.

On Wednesday, Shafiq declared from the UAE his intention to run in the upcoming presidential elections in Egypt, which is expected to be held in the spring of 2018.

Shafiq is the second person to announce intentions to run for president in 2018. Earlier last month, uman rights lawyer and former 2012 presidential candidate Khaled Ali declared his own intention to become a candidate for president.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has not yet declared a decision on whether he intends to run for a second term.

The 76-year-old Shafiq served as aviation minister under former President Hosni Mubarak and briefly as prime minister during the 2011 uprising before he was replaced in February 2012.

Shafiq narrowly lost the June 2012 presidential elections to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi, who held the office for one year before he was ousted in July 2013 following nationwide protests against his rule.

Shortly after the 2012 election, Shafiq claimed that the vote was rigged and travelled to the UAE, citing “concerns for his own safety.”

While in the UAE, Shafiq was tried in absentia on a number of corruption charges, but was either acquitted or had charges against him dropped.

source: Ahram Online