Freed Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El Fattah, who flew to Britain last week, has apologised “unequivocally” for past social media posts, but saying they had been used to question his “integrity and values”.
Mr Abd El Fattah, 43, who was released from detention in Egypt in September, had been jailed several times over the past decade while campaigning for political reform in public and on social media. He had been in prison for more than six years this time around.
He flew to the UK on Boxing Day and was reunited with his son, who lives in Brighton, on England's south coast, after a travel ban was lifted.
He was granted UK citizenship in December 2021 under Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson, reportedly through his UK-born mother, Laila Soueif.
Mr Abd El Fattah was welcomed to the UK by Keir Starmer who said on social media that he was “delighted” that Mr Abd El Fattah had been reunited with loved ones in Britain.
However, the Prime Minister is now under mounting pressure to revoke Mr Abd El Fattah's UK citizenship after posts from as early as 2010 surfaced. In these, the activist appears to call for violence against Zionists, white people and the police, and describe British people in a derogatory manner.
Mr Abd El Fattah said on Monday it had been “painful to see some people who supported calls for my release now feel regret for doing so”. He insisted they had “done the right thing”.
His imprisonment was branded a breach of international law by UN investigators, and he was pardoned by Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi in September, after years of lobbying by British governments.
He was a leading voice in Egypt’s 2011 uprising and went on hunger strikes behind bars.
In 2014, the blogger’s posts on Twitter cost him a nomination for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize. The group backing him withdrew the nomination for the human rights award, saying they had discovered a tweet from 2012 in which he called for the murder of Israelis.
“I am shaken that, just as I am being reunited with my family for the first time in 12 years, several historic tweets of mine have been republished and used to question and attack my integrity and values, escalating to calls for the revocation of my citizenship,” Mr Abd El Fattah said in a statement on Monday.
“Looking at the tweets now – the ones that were not completely twisted out of their meaning – I do understand how shocking and hurtful they are, and for that I unequivocally apologise.
“They were mostly expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations in a time of regional crises (the wars on Iraq, on Lebanon and Gaza), and the rise of police brutality against Egyptian youth.
“I particularly regret some that were written as part of online insult battles with the total disregard for how they read to other people. I should have known better.
“Looking back I see the writings of a much younger person, deeply enmeshed in antagonistic online cultures, utilising flippant, shocking and sarcastic tones in the nascent, febrile world of social media. But this young man never intended to offend a wider public and was, in the real world, engaged in the non-violent pro-democracy movement and repeatedly incarcerated for calling for full equality, human rights and democracy for all.
“Today, this middle-aged father firmly believes all our fates are entwined and we can only achieve prosperous and safe lives for our children together.”
He said that some tweets had been “completely misunderstood, seemingly in bad faith” and insisted he takes accusations of anti-Semitism “very seriously”.
“I have always believed that sectarianism and racism are the most sinister and dangerous of forces, and I did my part and paid the price for standing up for the rights of religious minorities in Egypt,” said Mr Abd El Fattah.
“I faced a military tribunal and imprisonment for defending Christians in Egypt falsely accused of violence.”
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp branded Mr Abd El Fattah a “despicable scumbag” on Monday, adding he was “not really interested” in the democracy activist’s apology.
The Conservative MP told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “If I was the actual home secretary, I would today be signing an order to revoke his citizenship under the 1971 Immigration Act on the grounds he’s not conducive to the public good, and making sure he gets deported.
“Because people who spew this kind of hatred have no place in this country, and the fact he’s issued an apology now that he’s been essentially exposed I think makes no difference whatsoever.
“He’s clearly making the apology simply because his vile, hateful remarks have been publicly exposed now.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform leader Nigel Farage have called for Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to look into whether the Egyptian dissident can be stripped of his UK citizenship and deported.
Mrs Badenoch previously said it was “inconceivable” that no one saw Mr Abd El Fattah’s published statements over the years and suggested those who did deemed them “offensive but unserious, or merely loose talk”.
It is said that Mr Starmer was not aware of the social media posts when he welcomed Mr Abd El Fattah.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said they had raised concerns with the government and that there was an “urgent need” to find out whether Mr Abd El Fattah still held the views expressed online.
