Alaa Abd El-Fattah, an Egyptian-British human rights campaigner, has “unequivocally” apologised after right-wing leaders in the United Kingdom dug up decade-old tweets to demand he be stripped of British citizenship.
In a lengthy apology posted online, the writer and blogger – who returned to Britain this week after 12 years of imprisonment in Egypt – said the tweets were “shocking and hurtful”, but added that some had been “completely twisted”.
Conservative Party and far-right Reform UK leaders, along with right-wing commentators, took to sympathetic outlets and social media to demand that Abd El-Fattah be stripped of citizenship for the posts dating back to 2010, which included alleged references to killing Zionists and police officers.
The tweets were “expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations in a time of regional crises”, including the wars on Iraq and Gaza, and a pervasive culture of “online insult battles”, Abd El-Fattah wrote.
Still, “I should have known better”, he said.
“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 added.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch wrote in a Daily Mail op-ed that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood should consider how Abd El-Fattah “can be removed from Britain” and added that she does “not want people who hate Britain coming to our country”.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, posted a letter he wrote to Mahmood on X and took a swipe at Badenoch for being part of the 2021 administration, then under Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, that granted Abd El-Fattah citizenship.
Human rights activists and supporters of Abd El-Fattah dismissed the efforts as a smear campaign and directed followers to his apology.
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