Alaa Abd El-Fattah was detained in Egypt in September 2019 and in December 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of spreading false news.
His imprisonment was branded a breach of international law by UN investigators and he was pardoned by Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi in September after years of lobbying by the UK’s Conservative and Labour governments.
He was granted British citizenship in December 2021 through his London-born mother .
He flew to the UK on Boxing Day and was reunited with his son, who lives in Brighton, after a travel ban was lifted.
His 14-year-old son attends a special needs school in Brighton.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer initially said he was “delighted” that Mr Abd El-Fattah had returned safely to the UK.
Since then, posts from as early as 2010 have surfaced in which the activist appears to call for violence against Zionists and the police, causing a backlash.
Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage have called for the Home Secretary to look into whether the Egyptian dissident can be stripped of his UK citizenship and deported.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has launched a review of the situation.
In a letter to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Cooper said she, Sir Keir Starmer and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy “were all unaware” of the historical tweets, which they consider to be “abhorrent”.
Alaa Abd El-Fattah has now apologised “unequivocally” for several of the historic tweets in which he appears to call for violence towards Zionists, but said some of the posts have been “completely twisted out of their meaning”.
Responding to historic tweets, Alaa today says:
“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…
— Free Alaa (@FreedomForAlaa) December 29, 2025
Responding to the furore on December 29, the freed activist wrote: “This weekend was supposed to be the first time I celebrated my son’s birthday with him since 2012.”
He previously told the BBC in October: “I’m looking forward to going to the beach with my son.
“I haven’t been to the beach since 2014.”
In June 2024, Mr Abd El-Fattah’s family marked Father’s Day by unfurling a giant banner down the side of Brighton Pier as part of their campaign to secure his release from prison.
His family dropped the giant banner—measuring four metres by three metres and bearing a “Free Alaa” message—off the pier to draw attention to his links to Brighton, where his son lives.
Following the banner drop, family and supporters gathered outside the Amnesty bookshop in Sydney Street.
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