ElBaradei interview trailer sparks calls for loss of citizenship

Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading Egyptian opposition figure, recently sat down for a lengthy interview with Al-Araby TV, which will be broadcast in several episodes starting on Saturday.

The short promo, which featured two statements from ElBaradei, was released last week, kicking up an online storm.

"A graduate of the armed forces can be a great commander but he won't know how to run the ministry of education," ElBaradei says, a likely reference to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

"The logical sequence is that authoritarian rule creates extremist groups," he says in another clip from the interview.

Rights activists accuse Sisi of running an authoritarian regime that has violently suppressed all opposition since toppling Islamist president Mohammad Morsi in 2013.

In response to ElBaradei's yet to be aired interview, pro-government social media users launched an Arabic-language hashtag, calling for the opposition figure's nationality to be rescinded.

"We have to take the nationality away from any traitor or agent. We have the right to do that to any dog who tries to break up his homeland," said one Twitter user.

ElBaradei resigned from his position as vice-president in 2013, on the same day as the Rabaa massacre in protest of the brutal killing of an estimated 1,000 peaceful protesters demonstrating against the military takeover of the country.

Abdelmoneim Mahmoud, the producer behind the interview, said that since the promo was released pro-regime media have been in a state of panic.

"State security has warned advertising companies to not run ads during the episodes of the interview," Mahmoud said in a Facebook post.

"It has also sent out the message that the interviews should not be covered in local media in either a positive or negative light," he added.

This week, a popular Egyptian talk show host was taken off the air, amid accusations that authorities pulled the programme for being overly critical of the government.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has accused Egypt of placing restrictions on media and being a "leading jailer of journalists".

Sisi has dismissed criticisms of media restrictions in Egypt, but he regularly complains about its performance and has suggested it occasionally harms the country with critical coverage.