The British-Egyptian activist at the center of a political controversy appears to have signaled support for recent claims that he is the target of a “smear campaign.”
Alaa Abd El Fattah arrived in the UK on Friday, reuniting with his family for the first time in 12 years after his release from an Egyptian prison, where human rights organizations alleged he was unjustly detained.
While the Prime Minister welcomed his return via a post on X, subsequent criticism arose following the emergence of older social media posts in which Mr. Abd El-Fattah advocated for violence against Zionists and police officers.
Sir Keir Starmer has since stated he was unaware of the “absolutely abhorrent” resurfaced posts, for which Mr. Abd El Fattah has issued an apology, adding that the government is “taking steps to review the information failures in this case.”
“With the rise of antisemitism, and recent horrific attacks, I know this has added to the distress of many in the Jewish community in the UK,” he added.
Yvette Cooper, Shadow Foreign Secretary, has requested a senior civil servant to investigate why ministers in both the current and former governments were not informed of Mr. Abd El Fattah’s prior comments.
Mr. Abd El Fattah’s apology, released in a statement early Monday morning, expressed his understanding of “how shocking and hurtful” the posts were.
He characterized the comments as “expressions of a young man’s anger.”
The Prime Minister’s spokesman welcomed the apology on Monday, describing it as “a fairly fulsome apology and that’s clearly the right thing to do.”
However, within hours of his apology, BBC News has learned that Mr. Abd El Fattah’s Facebook account “liked” a post from another user that described criticism of him as a “relentless smear campaign” waged by “the richest man in the world, a couple of Middle East intelligence services, and a few Zionist organizations.”
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick highlighted a second post, also “liked” by Mr. Abd El Fattah’s Facebook account on the same day, claiming he was a victim of a campaign by Zionists. BBC News has viewed a screenshot of this second message, but the original post appears to have been removed.
Jenrick asserted that the two posts “show El Fattah’s apology was insincere and scripted.”
“Far from distancing himself from his earlier extremist views, he confirms that he still holds them. Far from showing contrition, he is presenting himself as the victim of a conspiracy,” he added.
He said the posts “suggest the threshold for revoking his citizenship could be met: he was, and remains, a threat to national security, and his presence in the UK is clearly not conducive to the public good.”
The Facebook account attributed to Abd El Fattah previously shared a photo of his reunion with his 14-year-old son, Khaled, upon his arrival in the UK.
The activist, who spent over a decade incarcerated, gained prominence during the 2011 uprising that led to the resignation of then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
In 2021, he was convicted of “spreading fake news” for sharing a Facebook post about torture, in a trial widely condemned by human rights groups as unfair.
He was granted British citizenship in December 2021, during the Conservative government, due to his London-born mother.
Following the emergence of his old tweets, the Conservatives and Reform UK have called for the government to strip him of his British citizenship and deport him.
While the Home Secretary possesses the authority to revoke the citizenship of a dual national if it is deemed “not conducive to the public good,” this power has typically been reserved for cases involving terrorism or serious organized crime where an individual is considered a national security threat.
It is understood that Downing Street believes that this high bar is not met in this case. Any decision to strip someone of their citizenship is also likely to face a potentially lengthy and expensive legal challenge.
The activist was previously withdrawn as a nominee for a human rights prize a decade ago due to online comments he made about Israel in 2012.
Rail minister Lord Hendy said it was right the government was looking into why ministers were unaware of the messages.
“What he said was clearly quite abhorrent. Nobody would subscribe to that – certainly not the government. And now there is an inquiry by the Foreign Office about how these tweets were overlooked,” he said.
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