'This man deserves a chance': Alaa Abdel Fattah's lawyer condemns UK campaign over old social media posts

Activists and friends of British-Egyptian political activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who knew him well, especially during his imprisonment in his home country, are expressing concern about the impact of a current campaign being waged in the UK on him and his family.

"They are paying a heavy price," Khaled Ali, Abdel Fattah's lawyer, told The New Arab.  "They did this in the past and are doing it now."

Abdel Fattah, who arrived in Britain last week, after a travel ban slapped against him in Egypt was lifted, is at the centre of a snowballing campaign, against the background of allegedly sarcastic social media comments he made several years ago.

In some of those comments, he apparently and sarcastically calls for killing "Zionists", in others, he lobbies for killing policemen.

The comments are causing embarrassment to members of the British government, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who wrote that he was "delighted" that Abdel Fattah had been reunited with his loved ones in the UK.

However, the prime minister's office then said that he was not aware of those social media posts until after he arrived in Britain.

Where the current row over the same posts will lead up to in the coming days is anyone's guess, even after Abdel Fattah made a statement in which he apologised for making some of the comments that were not twisted or taken out of context.

Long journey home

Abdel Fattah, who was granted British citizenship in 2021 through his British-born mother, was at the forefront of the popular uprising that brought an end to the Hosni Mubarak autocracy in Egypt in 2011.

He faced multiple arrests and detentions over the years, spending much of the period from 2013 onward in prison or under restrictive probation.

His most recent and longest continuous imprisonment began on 29 September 2019, while he was on probation following a prior sentence. He was charged with spreading "false news" related to sharing a post about torture in Egyptian prisons.

In December 2021, he was sentenced to five years in prison, following a trial criticised as unfair by human rights groups.

On 23 September 2025, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a presidential pardon for Abdel Fattah, opening the door for his release.

A travel ban initially prevented him from leaving Egypt, but it was lifted, allowing him to travel to Britain on 26 December, where he reunited with his family.

Throughout all those years, successive British governments made massive diplomatic efforts to free him from Egyptian prisons and then called for lifting the travel ban against him.

Traitor?

Egyptians have been following the crisis over Abdel Fattah's posts unfolding in Britain closely.

Some, especially those who back President Sisi, opposed Abdel Fattah's release from prison earlier this year and opposed lifting the travel ban against him.

This opposition was clearly expressed on social media, where some people viewed the pro-democracy British-Egyptian activist as a "traitor" who incited violence against Egyptian police and military during the 2011 revolution era.

Others accused him of alignment with anti-government forces, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that briefly ruled Egypt after Mubarak's downfall. They were then removed from power, in what its supporters describe as a "military coup" by Sisi.

The same group of people view his old inflammatory posts as evidence of his "disloyalty" to Egypt and argue that Abdel Fattah's latest apology for posts that emerged in Britain is addressed only to British audiences and does not explicitly address past incitement against Egyptian state institutions.

"Claims by the British government that it was unaware of the dangers posed by this family can't be believed," Ahmed Moussa, a TV host who staunchly backs President Sisi, wrote on X.

"They [the British government] have all information about the people they back and offer facilities to," he added.

He called for investigating those who offered backing to Abdel Fattah in the past years, including what he described as media outlets and rights groups that portrayed him as a "pro-democracy hero".

Meanwhile, other Egyptians have called for revoking Abdel Fattah's Egyptian citizenship, branding those who defend him as "terrorists" and "traitors".

"I won't be surprised if Abdel Fattah bootlicks [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu," an Egyptian user wrote on X.  "Leftists and the Muslim Brotherhood have no dignity at all."

Hard-won freedom

With the emergence of new social media posts, Abdel Fattah's hard-won freedom may be under threat, especially if the situation escalates to the point of revoking his British citizenship.

Ali, a former presidential hopeful in Egypt, had known Abdel Fattah and his family all through the years of his struggle for freedom.

He viewed the row over his past social media comments as falling between rivalries between political camps in Britain.

"A man who spent over ten years in jail," Ali, Abdel Fattah's lawyer, remarked, "would need a long time to realise the enormity of the change happening in the world around him while he was incarcerated. This is true to Abdel Fattah as well as to everyone else."

Ali described pressures exerted on Abdel Fattah at present as "political blackmail".

"Putting pressure on him to force him to say specific things in return for his freedom is nothing but human and political blackmail," he said.

He noted that incarceration as an experience leaves its toll on those who go through it, and stressed that Abdel Fattah was a reformed man when he got out of prison.

"He underwent a great deal of soul-searching when he got out of prison in mid-2019," Ali said. "The remarks he made during investigations by the prosecution in September 2019 included deep self-criticism."

The view among Abdel Fattah's other acquaintances, as well as a wide range of political activists in Egypt, is no different. They call for giving him a chance to begin a new life in a new country, away from Egypt, which had been far from kind to him. This is especially true, activists and supporters say, after Abdel Fattah paid a high price for defending democracy and his principles in the Arab country.

"Putting the spotlight on social media posts Abdel Fattah wrote a long time ago only aims to cause him harm," Egyptian political activist Khaled Emam insisted to TNA. "This man deserves to have a new chance after being incarcerated and denied his freedom in Egypt for over ten years."