Emiratis arrest Egyptian presidential candidate

CAIRO — The United Arab Emirates arrested an Egyptian presidential candidate to deport him to Egypt, his lawyer said Saturday.

The move against Ahmed Shafiq is the strongest indication yet of the length the United Arab Emirates is willing to go to protect President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt from any real challenge in his expected campaign for re-election next spring.

Shafiq, a former air force general and a former prime minister, has lived in the United Arab Emirates since he narrowly lost Egypt’s only free presidential election, in 2012. He had said in recent days that he intended to run again, but the United Arab Emirates had blocked him from travel.

Shafiq, who arrived back in Egypt on Saturday night, according to security officials, now faces possible treason charges or other legal action in Egyptian courts.

After he announced his intention to run, several pro-government Egyptian television hosts denounced Shafiq as a corrupt traitor. Private lawyers supportive of the government began filing legal actions against him.

Alerted by an ally of Shafiq that he might be deported, The New York Times tried to reach him by phone Saturday. In a brief interview, May Shafiq, one of Shafiq’s grown daughters, said her father expected to fly to Paris that night.

A short time later, Ahmed Shafiq’s Egyptian lawyer, Dina Adly, wrote on Facebook: “The Emirati authorities have arrested Lt. Gen. Shafiq from his home in order to deport him to Egypt. We have lost contact with everyone.”

Shafiq ran for president in 2012 as the candidate of Egypt’s business and military establishment. He lost the election by about 2 percentage points to Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, whom el-Sissi later removed in a military takeover.

When Shafiq fled to the United Arab Emirates, prosecutors were investigating corruption charges related to his tenure as Egypt’s minister of civil aviation.

El-Sissi, then the defense minister, ran in a largely ceremonial presidential election in 2014. In a leaked phone call recording, Shafiq said he would not run because the vote would be “a farce.”

El-Sissi won with over 97 percent of the vote in an election that observers said fell short of international standards.