Former prime minister and presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq denied that the Egyptian presidency has intervened to allow his return to the country.
Local media have reported that a number of public figures are mediating with the Egyptian presidency to drop the charges filed against Shafiq in preparation for his return to Egypt.
Shafiq said in a press statement on Saturday that reports of the presidency’s role in this mediation were “pure fabrication and lies.”
The last prime minister in former president Hosni Mubarak’s regime, Shafiq fled to Dubai in June after the prosecutor general began an investigation into allegations of corruption during his government service.
Shafiq also criticized Egypt’s new Constitution.
“I cannot in any way accept to participate in any understanding based on a rejected constitution, and a Constituent Assembly that has nothing to do with the majority of the people of this country, in addition to systematically rigging the will of Egyptians, in all elections and referendums that have took place including the presidential election,” he said.
