Ex-premier’s whereabouts unknown after return to Egypt

The family of former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik said on Sunday it had not heard from him since he was deported from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Cairo on Saturday after announcing his intention to run for president next year.
Shafik, a former air force commander and government minister, has been seen as the strongest potential opponent of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who is widely expected to run for a second term next year.
His family said Shafik was picked up at the family home in the UAE on Saturday and taken by private plane back to Cairo. A Reuters witness said Egyptian authorities escorted him in a convoy from the airport.
UAE authorities confirmed he left the Emirates, but Egyptian officials have not commented on the case.
“We know nothing about him since he left home yesterday,” Shafik’s daughter May told Reuters. “His lawyer hasn’t been able to reach him. If we was deported he should have been able to go home by now.”
The family and lawyer said they planned to file complaints with the prosecutor’s office about Shafik’s whereabouts.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said it was not responsible for the case. The Interior Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
One Egyptian judicial source said Shafik, who narrowly lost a 2012 presidential election, did not face any criminal cases in Egypt. He was acquitted, or had charges dropped, in several cases in the past, including for corruption.
Sisi has yet to announce his own intentions for the presidential election, saying only he would follow the will of the people.
His supporters say measures are needed for security in the face of an militant insurgency in the country that has killed hundreds of police and soldiers in the last four years.
Shafik had said on Wednesday he would run for president in a surprise announcement from the UAE, where he has been based.. Several other lower-profile candidates have said they will run as well.
As military commander, Sisi led the ousting of former President Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013, before winning his own landslide election a year later. Sisi’s supporters see him as key to stability after the upheaval following the 2011 revolt that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.
But his government is battling a militant group fighting in the North Sinai region.