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Alaa Abdel Fattah, a well-known Egyptian democracy activist, has issued an apology for a series of his old tweets that have recently come to light. These messages have sparked intensified calls for his deportation from the UK, which he arrived in only days ago after being freed from imprisonment in Egypt. The controversy centers on tweets in which Fattah allegedly made violent statements targeting Zionists and the police.
Leaders from both the Conservative Party and Reform UK have urged the home secretary to consider whether Fattah, who holds dual nationality, should have his citizenship revoked and be removed from the UK. Reports indicate that some senior Labour MPs are also advocating for the cancellation of his British citizenship. Responding to these developments, Fattah expressed regret, acknowledging the gravity of the situation and apologizing unequivocally for the tweets, stating, “I do understand how shocking and hurtful they are, and for that I unequivocally apologise.”
Fattah described the timing of the resurfacing tweets as deeply unsettling, given he was just reunited with his family for the first time in over a decade. While he stressed he takes allegations of antisemitism seriously, he argued that some of the posts had been “completely twisted out of their meaning.” The controversy has also drawn criticism toward Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, who welcomed Fattah’s arrival in the UK but was reportedly unaware of the historic posts. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage have both called on Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to investigate the possibility of stripping Fattah’s citizenship to enable his prompt removal from the country. Farage emphasized in a letter that “anyone who possesses racist and anti-British views such as those of Mr el-Fattah should not be allowed into the UK.”
The Foreign Office has condemned the tweets as “abhorrent” but highlighted that Abdel Fattah’s release and reunion with family had been a longstanding priority across different UK governments. Fattah, 44, was convicted in Egypt in 2021 on charges of “spreading fake news” after he shared a post about torture, a case that human rights organizations criticized as unfair. It is noteworthy that he obtained British citizenship in December 2021 through his mother, who was born in London, during the Conservative government, with Dame Priti Patel serving as home secretary. Under international law, citizenship cannot be revoked if it would render someone stateless, meaning that such action is only possible if the individual holds or is eligible for citizenship elsewhere.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described Fattah’s alleged comments as “disgusting and abhorrent” and “anti-British.” She emphasized that decisions on citizenship must take into account social media activity and public statements, arguing, “It is one thing to work for someone’s release from prison if they’ve been treated unfairly… It is quite another to elevate them, publicly and uncritically, into a moral hero.” She added that while Fattah should have had a fair trial in Egypt, her sympathy ends there. Nigel Farage criticized MPs across parties for a lack of due diligence during campaigns to secure Fattah’s release, calling it “astonishing.” Earlier, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick suggested that Fattah should “be made to live in Egypt or frankly anywhere else in the world,” condemning his social media history as incompatible with British values.
Fattah has also been accused of inciting violence against the police, with tweets asserting that the police have no rights and calling for their killing. The Board of Deputies of British Jews expressed “profound concern” about the case. Adrian Cohen, the board’s senior vice-president, described Fattah’s “previous extremist and violent rhetoric aimed at ‘Zionists’ and white people in general” as threatening, not only to British Jews but to the broader public, and criticized the government’s warm welcome as reflecting “a broken system with an astonishing lack of due diligence.”
While apologizing for the hurt caused by his past comments, Fattah maintains that some were misunderstood or taken out of context. For instance, he clarified that a tweet cited to accuse him of homophobia was actually meant to mock homophobia, adding, “I have paid a steep price for my public support for LGBTQ rights in Egypt and the world.” He explained that his activism against police brutality, anti-LGBTQ+ laws, and the repression of Christians in Egypt was the reason behind his imprisonment. A writer, intellectual, and software developer, Fattah first gained prominence during the 2011 uprising that toppled former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Over the past decade, he has spent a significant portion of his life incarcerated. His release in September was secured through a presidential pardon after persistent campaigning by his family and intervention by the UK government.
Earlier, in 2014, Fattah was nominated for the Sakharov Prize, a European human rights award, but the nomination was withdrawn due to tweets about Israel posted in 2012. He argued that those remarks were made during a private discussion amid an Israeli military operation in Gaza and were taken out of context. After being removed from an Egyptian travel ban list that had confined him for three months post-release, Fattah has now been reunited with his 14-year-old son, who lives in Brighton
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