No 10 defends campaign to release Abd el-Fattah despite his ‘abhorrent’ tweets | Politics

Downing Street has defended its campaign for the release of a British-Egyptian activist and its decision to admit him to the UK despite his “disgusting” tweets a decade ago.

Alaa Abd al-Fattah, who arrived in London the next day after the British government successfully negotiated for his release, said he “absolutely” apologized for his posts, following opposition parties’ calls for him to be deported and his citizenship revoked.

Successive governments led by the Conservatives and the Labor Party have advocated for Abdel Fattah’s release over the past 10 years; he spent almost all of that time in prison in Egypt for his political beliefs, including his opposition to the treatment of dissidents.

Keir Starmer said he was “delighted” by Abdel Fattah’s arrival on Friday, but the development triggered a political storm after past tweets were revealed, including some in which Abdel Fattah called for the killing of Zionists.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office defended the handling of the case, saying: “As we have done in all cases and in the past, we welcome the return of a British citizen who was wrongfully detained abroad. This is at the heart of Britain’s commitment to religious and political freedom. This does not change the fact that we condemn the nature of these historic tweets and regard them as abhorrent.”

In a resurfaced tweet from 2010, Abdel Fattah said he found it “heroic to kill colonists and especially Zionists, we should kill more of them.” In 2012, he shared: “I’m a racist, I don’t like white people.” He is also accused of saying the police had no rights and “we should kill them all” and of calling the British “dogs and monkeys”.

Downing Street said Starmer was “unaware of the historic tweets” until Abd al-Fattah entered the UK. This development raises questions about what investigations were carried out before Abdel Fattah was granted UK citizenship in 2021, and what investigations the government did before taking up the case with Egyptian authorities. Successive prime ministers, including Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, have campaigned for his release.

The Foreign Office is investigating issues raised by its handling of the case, but government sources said Abdel Fattah was eligible for British citizenship through his mother without having to pass a character check.

Conservatives and Reform UK proposed that he be removed from the UK for these duties and that his British citizenship be revoked, although the law does not provide justification for either action.

Other MPs condemned Abdel Fattah’s past posts but called for a more measured response. Emily Thornberry, Labor chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said: “For those of us campaigning for his release it is extremely disappointing to see these tweets and they cannot be condoned in any way.

“But that doesn’t mean it would be right to strip him of his nationality and send him back to Egypt, where we can see that for 10 years he spent most of his time in prison simply for campaigning for human rights and democracy.

“If his apology today is sincere and sincere, he will not need to remind us of this, but encouraging religious hatred and violence is against the law and should be upheld by law in the UK.”

John McDonnell, the Labor MP for Hayes and Harlington, said Abdel Fattah was “an angry young man who was angry at the brutality he saw around him, particularly the plight of Palestinians”.

He added: “His horrific social media interventions were the product of this anger and were exposed more than a decade ago. But the point is this: Alaa’s journey was from a person who could send these vile tweets, to a defender of dignity, respect and human rights for all, to a defender of the oppressed and persecuted, regardless of their religion, gender or sexual orientation.”

In an apology published Monday, Abdel Fattah said he understood “how shocking and hurtful” his previous comments were, but that some of them had been misunderstood.

“These were mostly expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations at a time of regional crises (the Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza wars) and increasing police violence against Egyptian youth,” he said. “I particularly regret some of it that was written as part of online insult wars, with complete disregard for how it read to other people. I should have known better.”

He emphasized that he “takes accusations of anti-Semitism very seriously”, adding: “I have always believed that sectarianism and racism are the most malevolent and dangerous forces, and I have done my part and paid the price for defending the rights of religious minorities in Egypt.”

Dan Dolan, deputy chief executive of human rights organization Reprieve, said: “Recommending that someone should be stripped of their citizenship because of something they post on social media, no matter how bad, is authoritarian overreach of the worst kind and an extremely dangerous step. In a country governed by the rule of law, politicians should not have the power to strip the legal rights of anyone they choose.”

Abdel Fattah was a prominent voice in Egypt’s 2011 Arab spring uprising and went on a hunger strike behind bars. In 2014, his Twitter posts cost him a nomination for the European Parliament’s Sakharov prize.