Former Candidate Ahmed Shafiq leaves Egypt

Defeated presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq flew out of Egypt on Tuesday for a religious pilgrimage, aides said, a day after a prosecutor referred corruption lawsuits naming Shafiq to an investigating judge.

Shafiq’s rival Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was declared winner of a presidential run-off on Sunday. A judicial source said the general prosecutor had transferred graft cases against Shafiq to the investigating judge on Monday.

The lawsuits allege that Shafiq, a former air force commander, was involved in corrupt land deals and other corruption during his time as civil aviation minister between 2002 and 2011, the source said.

The state news agency MENA said Shafiq left Cairo airport unaccompanied on a United Arab Emirates airline early on Tuesday.

“Ahmed Shafiq left today at dawn for Abu Dhabi and from there he will head to the holy lands of Saudi Arabia to perform the Omra (pilgrimage) before returning to his homeland Egypt,” Shafik’s campaign team said on his official Facebook page.

Several of Shafiq’s associates could not immediately be reached for further comment.

Morsi, who like many Brotherhood figures spent time in jail during Hosni Mubarak’s three-decade rule, said during the election campaign that he was not out to settle scores against the ousted leader’s former associates, but that anyone who had broken the law must be held to account.

Mubarak made Shafiq prime minister in January last year in an attempt to end mass protests against his rule. A few days later the president stepped down. Shafik lasted another three weeks before he, too, resigned.

Shafiq was seen by many as the preferred presidential candidate of the generals who have ruled Egypt since Mubarak’s overthrow in February last year.

A divisive figure, Shafiq was seen as an outsider when the election campaign began. But his tough law-and-order platform appealed to many Egyptians tired of endless social and political turmoil since Mubarak’s overthrow.

In a military career spanning four decades, Shafiq served in wars with Israel and is credited with shooting down an Israeli aircraft in the 1973 war.

As civil aviation minister from 2002 to 2011, he overhauled the state airline Egypt Air and improved the country’s airports.