British-Egyptian dissident appears to endorse 'smear campaign' claims

"Alaa Abd El Fattah flew to the UK on Friday to be reunited with his family for the first time in 12 years following his release from an Egyptian jail where human rights groups said he had been unfairly detained. The prime minister welcomed his return in a post on X but subsequently faced criticism after old social media posts emerged in which Mr Abd El-Fattah called for the killing of Zionists and police officers. Sir Keir Starmer has since said he was unaware of the "absolutely abhorrent" resurfaced posts, which Mr Abd El-Fattah has apologised for, and said the government was "taking steps to review the information failures in this case"."

"Mr Abd El-Fattah's apology, which came in a statement issued in the early hours of Monday morning, said that he understood "how shocking and hurtful" the posts were. He said the comments were "expressions of a young man's anger". The apology was welcomed by the prime minister's spokesman on Monday. He said it was a "fairly fulsome apology and that's clearly the right thing to do"."

"However, within hours of his apology, BBC News has established that Mr Abd El Fattah's Facebook account liked another user's post which described criticism of him as a "relentless smear campaign" being waged by "the richest man in the world, a couple of Middle East intelligence services, and a few Zionist organisations"."

Alaa Abd El Fattah returned to the UK to reunite with his family following release from an Egyptian jail where human rights groups described his detention as unfair. The prime minister initially welcomed his return but faced backlash after resurfaced social media posts called for the killing of Zionists and police officers. Sir Keir Starmer said he was unaware of the posts and described them as "absolutely abhorrent" while promising a review of information failures. Mr Abd El-Fattah issued an apology calling the comments "expressions of a young man's anger." A Facebook like suggested he endorsed claims of a "relentless smear campaign."

Read at www.bbc.com