UAE ‘deporting’ Egypt presidential hopeful Shafiq to Cairo: aides
Cairo : UAE officials on Saturday took former Egyptian premier and presidential hopeful Ahmed Shafiq from his Abu Dhabi home to be deported back to Egypt, two of his aides told AFP.
The move comes days after Shafiq, in exile in the UAE since 2012, announced his candidacy in next year’s election and then said he was being prevented from leaving the country, angering his Emirati hosts. Shafiq, a former army general appointed as prime minister by Hosni Mubarak, had narrowly lost an election to Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2012, a year after Mubarak’s overthrow.
He was placed on trial after the polls on corruption charges and acquitted, and one of Shafiq’s lawyers said last year that he was free to return to Egypt, report AFP.
One aide said she witnessed officials arriving at the house and was told that Shafiq, seen as a main challenger to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, would be deported to Egypt on board a private plane.
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