CAIRO, Jan 8 (Aswat Masriya) – Former Egyptian Vice President for Foreign Affairs Mohamed El Baradei said early on Sunday that airing leaked phone calls of political opponents on TV is a sign of "fascism".   

Pro-regime TV host Ahmed Moussa aired purported recordings of a number of ElBaradei's private phone calls; including one with his brother Ali and another reported to be in 2011 with then-Egyptian armed forces chief of staff Sami Anan.

"Private phone conversations of political opponents wiretapped, doctored and aired on TV. Fascism rearing its ugly head yet again," ElBaradei wrote on his Twitter account. 

The leaks coincided with the airing of the first episode of ElBaradei's interview with the Al Araby TV channel, in which the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency broke his three-year silence since he resigned from the post of vice president in August 2013 over the violent dispersal of sit-ins organised by supporters of former President Mohamed Mursi.

The Nobel laureate has been living abroad since then.