A British-Egyptian activist has apologised “unequivocally” for “shocking and hurtful” past social media posts in which he appears to call for violence against “Zionists” – but said some had been “completely twisted”.
The historic tweets by Alaa Abd El-Fattah emerged after he returned to the UK on Boxing Day following several years of imprisonment in Egypt.
“I am shaken that, just as I am being reunited with my family for the first time in 12 years, several historic tweets of mine have been republished and used to question and attack my integrity and values, escalating to calls for the revocation of my citizenship,” he said in a statement on Monday.
“Looking at the tweets now – the ones that were not completely twisted out of their meaning – I do understand how shocking and hurtful they are, and for that I unequivocally apologise.”
Mr Abd El-Fattah was a leading voice in Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising and went on hunger strikes behind bars.
He was most recently detained in September 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison in December 2021, on charges of spreading false news.
UN investigators branded his imprisonment a breach of international law, and both Conservative and Labour governments lobbied for his release.
Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi pardoned the activist earlier this year and he flew to the UK to reunite with his young son, who lives in Brighton, last week.
He had been granted UK citizenship in December 2021 under Boris Johnson, reportedly through his UK-born mother.
‘I take allegations of antisemitism very seriously’
After the historic social media posts came to light, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called for the home secretary to look into whether the activist can be stripped of his UK citizenship and deported.
In his statement, the activist highlighted that he is now a middle-aged father, but said the posts were “mostly expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations in a time of regional crises” and the “rise of police brutality against Egyptian youth”.
He continued: “I particularly regret some that were written as part of online insult battles with the total disregard for how they read to other people. I should have known better.”
Mr Abd El-Fattah said he took allegations of antisemitism “very seriously” and that some of the tweets had been “misunderstood, seemingly in bad faith”.
A tweet being shared to allege homophobia was actually ridiculing homophobia, he said, while another had been “wrongly interpreted to suggest Holocaust denial – but in fact the exchange shows that I was clearly mocking Holocaust denial”.
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Mr Abd El-Fattah said he had been looking forward to celebrating his son’s birthday with him for the first time since 2012, when he was just a year old.
He missed those birthdays because of his “consistent promotion of equality, justice and secular democracy”, he said. This included “publicly rejecting anti-Jewish speech in Egypt, often at risk to myself, defence of LGBTQ rights, defence of Egyptian Christians, and campaigning against police torture and brutality – all at great risk”.
Mr Abd El-Fattah said it had been “painful” to see some people who supported calls for his release now feeling regret.
“Whatever they feel now, they did the right thing,” he continued. “Standing up for human rights and a citizen unjustly imprisoned is something honourable, and I will always be grateful for that solidarity.”
He finished by saying he had “received huge empathy and solidarity from people across the UK, enough to win me my freedom, and I will be forever grateful for this”.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said it had been a “long-standing priority under successive governments” to work for Mr Abd El-Fattah’s release, “and to see him reunited with his family in the UK”.
However, the government condemns the “abhorrent” historic tweets, the spokesperson added.
It is understood Prime Minister Keir Starmer was not aware of the social media posts when he celebrated Mr Abd El-Fattah’s returned to the UK.
