Baradei heckled, instigates rumble with MB

CAIRO – 21 May 2017: Former interim vice president Mohamed ElBaradei was heckled while giving a lecture at the SOAS University of London on Tuesday.

The lecture, entitled “Human Dignity and World Order”, comes as part of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) lecture series.

The self-exiled Egyptian dissident was making a speech about the topic of human dignity during his lecture when suddenly an audience member disrupted him by shouting, “You wasted human dignity Mr. Baradei, in your country Egypt… you are a killer.”


Elbaradei, unable to continue his speech, just froze in his place while several hecklers, who are believed to be affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood, started shouting, pointing fingers at him and calling him a “dog” and a “traitor” until the university’s security guards interfered to remove them out of the hall.



ElBaradei served as Egypt’s interim vice president following the toppling of former president Mohamed Moris after the July 30, 2013 uprising. He then resigned after dispersing the protest camps set up by Morsi supporters in August 2013.

For his part, centre-left Dostour (Constitution) Party's former secretary-general Tamer Gomaa criticized the brotherhood after jeering at ElBaradei during his lecture.

“What happened with ElBaradei makes people who are sympathizing with the Muslim Brotherhood finally understand that they are like dogs that erode through the nation,” Gomaa posted on his official Facebook account.



“Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in was never a symbol for humanity; neither it was a peaceful sit-in,” Gomaa said in a following Facebook post. “It was an armed sit-in formed by a terrorist group who wanted to kill and terrorize people, so they got what they deserve,” he added.



Meanwhile, Leader of the Salafist Al-Asala party Ehab Shiha on his Facebook account said, “When ElBaradei was announced to appear in a TV interview recently, I thought he was going to improve his image with some kind of apology, however, he followed the same way of talking like he is the only sane, rational and politic person out there.”

On January, Egyptian law-maker Mostafa Bakry presented an official letter to parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal demanding to revoke ElBaradei’s citizenship for "inciting against the Egyptian nation."

The Noble laureate was accused by Bakry of “defaming Egypt’s institutions before international organizations and entities.

Since his resignation in 2013, El-Baradei has been accused by several media outlets of “desertion” and “treason”.