Judge dismisses lawsuit against Egypt's ex-interim vice president

PanARMENIAN.Net - A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Egypt's former interim vice president for "betrayal of trust" in quitting the army-backed government in protest against its bloody crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, according to Reuters.

Cairo's Misdemeanours Court judge Wael El-Mahdi on Saturday, Oct 26 threw out the case against Mohamed ElBaradei, saying it lacked sufficient grounds. ElBaradei was out of the country.

Anti-Morsi Egyptian law professor Sayyid Al-Ateeq brought the suit against ElBaradei in August.

ElBaradei, former head of the UN nuclear agency and co-leader of the secular National Salvation Front (NSF) grouping, had been the most prominent liberal to endorse the military's overthrow of former president Morsi on July 3.

He resigned on August 14 after security forces attacked protest camps set up by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo, killing hundreds of people.

Morsi's supporters brought several lawsuits against opposition figures during his year in power. Anti-Morsi activists had called such suits, many of them accusing people of "insulting the president", a form of political intimidation.

The military's intervention against Morsi polarized public opinion in Egypt. More than 1,000 people have died in violence across the country since July.