CAIRO (TIP): Egypt on December 30 dropped treason charges against top opposition leaders including ex-IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei, extending an olive branch to the leaders who had accused President Mohamed Morsi of trying to muzzle dissent. The country’s top prosecutor had ordered an investigation into accusations against against the constitution party head ElBaradei, Nobel Prize laureate and former head of the Unbited Nations nuclear agency, along with Amr Moussa, former foreign minister and Hamdeen Sabahi, leader of the Dignity Party, of incitement to overthrow regime of President Morsi. Moussa and Sabahy both had challenged Morsi for the post of the president in a June poll this year, which followed the 2011 uprising against the long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak that led to him stepping down from his post.

Asqalani, a member of the Freedoms Committee at the Lawyers Syndicate, said that he had filed the complaint at the time of the Ettehadeya presidential palace clashes that led to the deaths of several people. He also said it was a dark time when Egyptian blood was being shed, and suggested that “everything that has happened may be part of a conspiracy against the country”.