[Al Ahram] Constitution Party Media Secretary Khaled Dawoud expresses his "shock" at news that the party's founder and former Egyptian vice president Mohamed ElBaradeiEgyptian law scholar and sometime Iranian catspaw. He was head of the IAEA from December 1997 to November 2009. At some point during his tenure he was purchased by the Iranians. ElBaradei and the IAEA were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for something in 2005. ElBaradei served on the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, a lefty NGO that is bankrolled by the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as George Soros' Open Society Institute. After the fall of Mubarak he ran for president. He lost.
may face trial for having resigned, calling the legal petition part of a campaign against ElBaradei.
Helwan University criminal law professor Ahmed El-Ateeq filed a case against ElBaradei this week charging he "breached national trust."
"No official was ever charged in any country in the world with a crime for simply resigning from his post," Dawoud maintains.
Dawoud argues, however, that El-Ateeq used financial law in his case against ElBaradei, which he says doesn't apply, according to the Constitution Party's blurb.
He adds that reviewing such a case so quickly - a Cairo court set the trial date for 19 September, which also coincides with the judges' annual holiday - is proof of a "rabid campaign aimed at tarnishing [ElBaradei's] reputation and stances." He also points out that this isn't the first time the Constitution Party has stood against a campaign against them.
ElBaradei resigned citing that he could not bear the responsibility for decisions that led to violence witnessed at the dispersal of sit-ins on 14 August that were pressing to reinstate president Mohamed Morsi. Protests against the violent dispersal erupted in the days following, with hundreds dying and thousands injured in festivities.