Ex Egypt premier deported from UAE

Cairo : Former Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafik, who last week announced plans to run for the presidency, was deported from the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, his family said, and arrived in Cairo hours later.

Shafik, a former air force commander and government minister, was seen as the strongest potential opponent of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is expected to run a second term next year.

With airport security high, Shafik landed in a private plane in Cairo airport on Saturday evening, the airport sources said.A Reuters witness at the airport said Egyptian authorities escorted Shafik in a motorcade that was waiting for him outside the airport.

UAE news agency WAM said Shafik left the Emirates for Egypt without giving any details on why or how he departed. It said his family had remained behind in the Emirates.

Shafik’s daughter May Shafik, told Reuters that authorities had come for him at his home and sent him to Cairo.

A spokesman for Egypt’s foreign ministry did not immediately answer a call seeking details. But an Egyptian judicial source said Shafik was not wanted in any criminal cases at the moment, but he had several cases, including for corruption, against him in the past that either ended in acquittal or were dropped.

“We have no information about a deportation order,” the judicial source said.

Shafik said on Wednesday he would run for president in a surprise announcement from the UAE, where he has been based.

Several other low-profile candidates have said they will run.

Shafik narrowly lost to Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s 2012 election before fleeing overseas.

May Shafik said on Friday he was preparing to depart, first for Europe and the United States before returning to Egypt to start his campaign.