Foreign Office investigating amid calls to deport activist

Downing Street says there are 'questions to be answered' in respect of historic social media posts by Alaa Abd el-Fattah

- TARA COBHAM MILLIE COOKE

The Foreign Office is looking into the handling of the case of a democracy activist who recently arrived in the UK after years of imprisonment in Egypt, after the emergence of several historic tweets and growing calls for him to be deported.

Alaa Abd el-Fattah on Sunday night issued an “unequivocal” apology for several historic tweets, some of which appear to advocate violence against Zionists. But he maintained that other posts have been “completely twisted out of their meaning”.

The controversy has led figures such as the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage to demand an investigation with a view to revoking the activist’s British citizenship.

Downing Street believes there are questions to be answered over the handling of the case, and it is understood that the Foreign Office is now examining the issue. But the activist is unlikely to be stripped of his citizenship, because No 10 does not believe his actions meet the high legal bar for deportation.

Mr Abd el-Fattah, who was detained in Egypt in September 2019 and sentenced to five years in prison in December 2021 for allegedly spreading false news, was pardoned by Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in September.

After his release, which followed extensive lobbying by both Conservative and Labour governments, he flew to the UK on Boxing Day to be reunited with his son in Brighton. Since his arrival, posts dating back to 2010 have resurfaced, appearing to call for violence against Zionists and the police.

Yesterday, Downing Street defended Mr Abd el-Fattah’s entry into the UK, saying that the government would welcome the return of any citizen who had been “unfairly detained abroad”.