British-Egyptian Dissident Alaa Abd El Fattah Returns to UK Amid Controversy Over Past Posts
Alaa Abd El Fattah, a British-Egyptian dissident, was released from an Egyptian jail and flew to the UK to reunite with his family for the first time in 12 years.
The UK prime minister welcomed his return but faced criticism after old social media posts resurfaced in which Abd El Fattah called for the killing of Zionists and police. Labour leader Keir Starmer said he was previously unaware of the posts and apologized. The government announced it would review the information failures that led to these posts being overlooked.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper requested a senior civil servant to review why ministers were not informed about Abd El Fattah's prior comments.
In response, Abd El Fattah issued an apology describing the posts as expressions of a young man's anger. The prime minister's spokesman regarded the apology as fairly fulsome.
BBC investigations revealed that Abd El Fattah's Facebook likes included content supporting what was described as a "smear campaign" by Zionists and Middle East intelligence services. Another liked post suggested he was a victim of Zionist campaigns. The original inflammatory posts have since been deleted.
Conservative and Reform UK parties called for stripping Abd El Fattah of his British citizenship and deporting him to Egypt. Although the Home Secretary has powers to remove citizenship, Downing Street stated the legal threshold that his presence would be "not conducive to the public good" had not been met, and any legal challenge would be lengthy and expensive.
Abd El Fattah acquired British citizenship in December 2021 through his London-born mother. He was previously convicted in Egypt in 2021 for spreading fake news, and a 2012 comment about Israel had led to a prize nomination being withdrawn.
The UK government confirmed it would conduct a review into the information failures in this activist case, including an inquiry by the Foreign Office into how tweets and posts were missed.
