Home secretary urged to strip activist of British citizenship

Egyptian democracy activist Alaa Abdel Fattah has apologized for some of his old tweets that have resurfaced, just days after his release from an Egyptian prison, as calls grow for him to be deported from the UK.

Conservative Party and Reform England leaders said the home secretary should consider whether Abdel Fattah, a dual citizen, could be sacked after social media messages showed him calling for the killing of Zionists and police.

The Times reported that some senior Labor MPs also wanted his citizenship will be removed.

After reviewing the historic posts, Abdel Fattah said: “I understand how shocking and hurtful they were, and for that I absolutely apologize.”

He added: “Just as I was reunited with my family for the first time in 12 years, I was shocked that some of my historic tweets were being republished and used to question and attack my integrity and values, and turned into calls for the revocation of my citizenship.”

While Abdel Fattah stated that he took the allegations of anti-Semitism “very seriously”, he argued that some of the posts were “completely distorted”.

Sir Keir Starmer was criticized for saying he was “delighted” by Abdel Fattah’s arrival in the UK on Friday, three months after his release from prison in Egypt, but it is understood he was unaware of the historic messages.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform England leader Nigel Farage said Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood should look at whether Abdel Fattah’s citizenship could be revoked to ensure his speedy removal from the UK.

In a letter to Mahmood, Farage said: “It goes without saying that anyone who holds racist and anti-British views, such as Mr El-Fattah, should not be allowed into the UK.”

The Foreign Office said the release of Abdel Fattah and seeing him reunited with his family in the UK had been “a long-standing priority under successive governments” but condemned his posts as “disgusting”.

The 44-year-old man was convicted of “spreading fake news” in Egypt in 2021 for sharing a Facebook post about torture in the country, following a trial that human rights groups said was grossly unfair.

He was granted citizenship through his London-born mother in December 2021, when the Conservatives were in power and Dame Priti Patel was home secretary.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, who was immigration minister under Patel, told the BBC in 2021 that he had no knowledge of these details. He added that he was now clear in his mind that “this man’s citizenship should be revoked.”

“There’s no excuse for what he wrote,” Philp told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

In a resurfaced tweet from 2012, Abdul Fattah says: “I’m a racist, I don’t like white people.” In another, he says that he sees “killing colonialists and especially Zionists as heroism, and we should kill more.”

He is also accused of saying the police had no rights and “we should kill them all.”

“There is no excuse for this kind of language,” Philp said Monday. “People expressing this kind of hatred, this kind of anti-white racism, this kind of extremism and inciting violence have no place in the UK.”

The UK has responsibilities under international law to ensure that people are not left stateless, and British citizenship can only be stripped from a person who has the right to apply for citizenship in another country.

Badenoch said Abdel Fattah’s reported comments were “disgusting and disgusting” and anti-British, adding that citizenship decisions “must take into account social media activity, public statements and belief patterns”.

He said: “It is one thing to work to get someone released from prison if they have been treated unfairly. as previous governments did. “It’s quite another to publicly and uncritically make them into moral heroes.”

He added that Abdel Fattah “should be subjected to a free and fair trial in Egypt” but “thus my sympathies end.”

In his letter to the home secretary, Farage said it was “surprising” that MPs from Labour, the Conservatives or other parties had not done “basic due diligence” on Abdel Fattah while campaigning for his release.

He said Starmer showed an “extraordinary error of judgment” when he posted on X welcoming Abdel Fattah’s return.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said the case was “deeply concerning”.

Adrian Cohen, the board’s senior vice-chairman, said: “His previous extremist and violent rhetoric, targeting ‘Zionists’ and white people generally, threatened British Jews and the wider public.

“The cross-party campaign and the government’s warm welcome for such a person reveals a broken system with a surprising lack of due diligence by the authorities.”

Admitting that some of his comments were “shocking and hurtful”, Abdul Fattah maintains that some old messages were misinterpreted.

“For example, a tweet suggesting homophobia on my part was actually mocking homophobia,” he said.

“I have paid a heavy price for my public support for LGBTQ+ rights in Egypt and around the world.”

Advocacy against police brutality, anti-LGBTQ+ laws and Christian oppression in Egypt led to his incarceration, Abdel Fattah said in a statement.

Author, intellectual and software developer Abdel Fattah rose to prominence during the 2011 uprising that forced former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to resign.

He spent more than a decade of his life behind bars and was released in September following a presidential pardon after a long campaign by his family and lobbying by the British government.

In 2014, Abdel Fattah was nominated for the Sakharov Prize, a European human rights award, but the award was withdrawn due to tweets he shared about Israel in 2012.

He said these comments were part of a “private conversation” that took place during Israel’s attack on Gaza and were taken out of context.

Abdel Fattah, who was removed from Egyptian authorities’ travel ban list that kept him in the country for three months after his release from prison, has been reunited with his 14-year-old son, who now lives in Brighton.