The release of British-Egyptian democracy campaigner Alaa Abd el-Fattah from detention in Egypt has been swiftly overshadowed by a fierce political backlash over historic social media posts in which he appeared to condone violence.
Controversial Posts From the Arab Spring Era
Abd el-Fattah, who was freed last Friday after years of lobbying by successive UK governments, issued a lengthy apology in the early hours of Monday. He addressed a series of inflammatory posts, written predominantly on X between 2010 and 2012 during the Arab Spring. The now-deleted tweets, which could not be immediately verified, reportedly included calls for violence against Zionists and police.
In screenshots circulated online, the activist, then around 30, is alleged to have described the killing of Zionists as heroic, adding "we need to kill more of them". In 2011, he is accused of stating police "don't have rights, we should just kill them all". Other posts from the period saw him refer to British people as "dogs and monkeys" and, during the 2011 London riots, urge people to "go burn the city or downing street or hunt police".
Apology and Political Fallout
In his statement, Abd el-Fattah expressed regret, saying he understood "how shocking and hurtful" the comments were. He attributed them to the "anger and frustrations" of a young man during a time of regional war and rising police brutality in Egypt. He claimed some tweets had been "completely misunderstood" and "twisted out of their meaning."
The emergence of the posts has caused significant political embarrassment. A Number 10 source stated that Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his deputy, and the Foreign Secretary were unaware of the comments, which the government labelled "abhorrent". Senior Conservatives, including former leader Iain Duncan Smith and ex-Foreign Affairs Committee chair Alicia Kearns, said they regretted lobbying for his release, claiming they were also in the dark.
Calls for Citizenship Revocation and Police Assessment
The controversy has ignited demands for Abd el-Fattah to be stripped of the British citizenship he acquired in 2021 under Boris Johnson's government. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to examine whether his "citizenship can be revoked and he can be removed from Britain". Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who reported the activist to counter-terror police, made similar demands.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp suggested Mahmood sign an order for revocation under the 1971 Immigration Act on grounds he was "not conducive to the public good". However, Foreign Affairs Committee chair Emily Thornberry dismissed this, stating the law prevents removing citizenship from Britons without dual nationality unless they are a national security threat, a bar she doubted historical tweets would meet.
A Counter-Terrorism Policing spokesperson confirmed they had received referrals about the historical posts and that specialist officers were assessing them.
This is not the first time Abd el-Fattah's social media history has caused trouble; a 2012 tweet cost him a nomination for the European Parliament's Sakharov prize in 2014. Despite this, both Conservative and Labour administrations had campaigned for his release from Egypt, arguing he was unfairly detained.
