A volley of accusations against Wasat Party MP Essam Sultan was the subject of a campaign event for presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq after Sultan filed charges of corruption against the ex-air force commander.
Speaking during a press conference held at his campaign headquarters in a Cairene suburb, Shafiq said that Sultan “has a hobby these days of throwing obstacles in Ahmed Shafiq’s path.”
Sultan was a chief backer of a law passed in April stripping political rights from anyone who served as president, vice president or prime minister in the 10 years before Mubarak was deposed in February 2011.
Shafiq was initially disqualified from the presidential race following the passing of this law, but the Presidential Elections Committee (PEC) accepted his appeal against the decision. His campaign event Monday was focused on countering allegations against him.
Sultan alleged in the People’s Assembly on Sunday that as head of an organization managing the sale of land to air force officers, the Cooperative Society for Air Force Officers, Shafiq sold state land at a fraction of its true cost to Gamal and Alaa Mubarak, the sons of the deposed president.
On Monday the Public Prosecutor referred the case to the Public Funds Prosecution Office.
Shafiq alleges that when his disqualification from the presidential race was rejected, “Sultan went looking for side issues.”
He rejected Sultan’s accusations that a 40,238 square meter piece of prime real estate in Suez was sold to Alaa and Gamal for a price of 75 piastres per square meter when the true price of land is LE8 per square meter.
Shafiq held up paperwork and in detail recounted the ins-and-outs of the land sale to the Mubaraks. He claims that it took place in 1985, and that he signed receipts for the sale seven years later, after he became head of the Cooperative Society in 1992.
Shafiq says that his role was limited to signing the paperwork concerning the sale and that he did not have the right to amend any of the details.
Shafiq became increasingly fractious as he rebutted the allegations, contemptuously referring to Sultan by his first name only without using an honorific title.
He alleged that the Wasat MP is making the accusations in order to distract Shafiq from his presidential campaign in the coming 10 days, saying, “Let him do what he wants. I’ll ambush him.”
Shafiq became even more bullish when he trawled Sultan’s alleged past, claiming that the Wasat MP is a State Security Investigations Services (SSIS) agent who spied on the Muslim Brotherhood in Tahrir Square during the 18 days of the revolution and passed on information about the Kefaya democracy movement to the security services. He said Sultan was also used to prevent rapprochement between the Muslim Brotherhood and Mohamed ElBaradei during the latter’s activism with the National Association for Change in 2010.
“Essam, when you were in Tahrir Square, I remember there were always two traitors who walked hand-in-hand with you during the 18 days,” said Shafiq, who led a recent poll on presidential candidates conducted by the Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center. He mentioned Islamic preacher Safwat Hegazy and claimed to have the names of others.
Sultan also played a role in the imprisonment of Muslim Brotherhood senior figure Khairat al-Shater and other Brotherhood members in 2007, Shafiq alleged, saying, “Only God knows if the case was fabricated or not, but if it was, it was thanks to the efforts of Shater’s dear friend Essam.”
“Shall I say which SSIS officer was handling Essam?” Shafiq asked, and was greeted with enthusiastic clapping and shouts of encouragement from members of his campaign team and journalists.
Shafiq refused to divulge any information other than mentioning the initials of two SSIS officers.
Even while he lobbed this volley of accusations against Sultan, Shafiq lamented that he was being “forced to behave like a child by children who are bringing him down to their level.”
Shafiq was appointed prime minister by Hosni Mubarak on 30 January 2011, serving briefly until protests forced him to resign. He was minister of civil aviation from 2002 to 2011.
Shafiq brought up the subject of a road between New Cairo and Cairo Airport constructed during his tenure.
In 2011, Civil Aviation employees filed a case against Shafiq alleging that the road, which cost LE120 million, was built solely so that Shafiq could commute home more easily.
Shafiq angrily dismissed the accusations, saying that the road is one of the Civil Aviation Ministry’s greatest achievements.
Abruptly changing the subject, Shafiq — criticized by some for being “felool,” or a remnant of the Mubarak regime — then addressed an unnamed individual and members of an unnamed “organization” who had alleged that violence would ensue from Shafiq’s contesting the presidential elections.
“When someone naïve says that if Ahmed Shafiq enters the elections they’ll be blood spilled and we’ll use weapons — this is very odd. Do you know, you who are talking nonsense, just how much you are harming your organization and how much you are harming the state’s image before the civilized world, you idiot?”
Turning to the subject of Al-Azhar, Shafiq lashed out at critics who “claim to know more about Islam than Al-Azhar” and want to reduce its role saying, “Christians support Al-Azhar because it ensures stability.”
Shafiq concluded the press conference by once again attacking Sultan.
“Return to your true size, Essam, because your disasters are many and dishonorable. Know your true size when you speak to people bigger than you and respect your limits.”
