ElBaradei: I will not be held back by smear campaigns

Again finding himself a victim of smear campaigns, Vice President for Foreign Affairs Mohamed ElBaradei has defended his privacy on his Twitter account and attributed the campaigns to a tyrannical regime. 

In his tweets Sunday, ElBaradei traced back the “lies and smear campaigns” to January 2010 by “pawns” in a desperate attempt for tyranny to persist.

ElBaradei said there have been lies regarding “my affiliation, my faith, my work, my relations as an international official, my personal life.”

“Professing the truth in the fight for freedom, dignity and human values will continue as long as I live and the revolution will triumph,” he tweeted.    

Reports have surfaced over the weekend, claiming ElBaradei is of Shia faith.

A Lebanese paper claimed ElBaradei gave statements after he performed Eid prayer saying he is “of Sunni identity but Shia faith.”

Last week, state-owned newspaper Al-Akhbar launched a salvo against ElBaradei, criticizing him for hypocrisy and exploiting the revolution.

The article in question, written by columnist and literary figure Gamal al-Ghitani, said that the former diplomat is “Theoretically the champion of the revolution, but practically destroying it.”

In 2010 after ElBaradei returned to Egypt and his calls for reform started gaining ground, a Facebook page surfaced that posted pictures of ElBaradei's daughter in a swimming suit and images of him and his family at events with what appears to be glasses of wine in front of them.

At the time, ElBaradei accused the then ruling regime of launching a smear campaign against him.