Former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq will pay an EGP 10,000 fine for defaming the deputy chairman of the Al-Wasat Party, Essam Sultan. The Fifth Settlement Misdemeanours Court ruled in favor of Sultan, who pressed charges of libel and defamation against Shafiq. Shafiq's lawyer Hisham Mourad accused Sultan filing the complaint as political retaliation and to add further obstacles to the former prime minister's return to politics, according to Aswat Masriya. The two prominent political figures found themselves in opposing positions in January, when Sultan was sentenced to one month in prison, an EGP 10,000 fine, and EGP 50 bail by the Al-Matareya Misdemeanours Court. Shafiq traveled to the United Arab Emirates following his loss to Mohamed Morsi in last summer's presidential elections, and has not returned to Egypt since. He was acquitted in absentia last week for allegedly misappropriating public funds as minister of civil aviation under ousted president Hosni Mubarak. The former PM still faces other cases and remains on an airport blacklist that allows the government to arrest him if he returns to the country.
