Labour MP Questions Keir Starmer’s Alaa Abd El Fattah Decision | Politics | News News | EUROtoday
Get real time updates directly on you device, subscribe now.
A Labour MP has publicly questioned the choice to welcome British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah to the UK, elevating issues over what checks have been carried out earlier than his return and criticising what he described as “vile” historic social media posts.
Tom Rutland, the Labour MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, requested why successive governments had prioritised bringing Mr Abd El-Fattah to Britain, and what vetting had been carried out. Writing on social media, Mr Rutland mentioned it was “unclear” why the case had been handled as a precedence and requested what background checks have been “routinely done in these cases”.
He added that Mr Abd El-Fattah’s previous tweets have been “impressive in how they manage to be vile in such a variety of ways”.
The feedback comply with renewed scrutiny of Mr Abd El-Fattah’s on-line historical past after historic posts emerged during which he appeared to name for violence towards Zionists. The posts have sparked criticism from throughout the political spectrum since his launch and return to the UK.
Mr Abd El-Fattah, a twin British-Egyptian nationwide, was arrested in Egypt in 2019 and later sentenced to 5 years in jail on costs of spreading false information.
His detention was condemned by UN investigators as a breach of worldwide legislation, and his case grew to become a distinguished worldwide human rights concern. He was launched in September after receiving a presidential pardon from Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi.
The UK Government confirmed that Mr Abd El-Fattah is a British citizen and mentioned efforts to safe his launch had been a long-standing precedence beneath each Labour and Conservative governments.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson mentioned: “Mr El-Fattah is a British citizen. It has been a long-standing precedence beneath successive governments to work for his launch from detention and to see him reunited along with his household within the UK.
“The government condemns Mr El-Fattah’s historic tweets and considers them to be abhorrent.”
Sir Keir was allegedly not conscious of the historic posts when he welcomed Mr Abd El-Fattah’s launch.
Mr Abd El-Fattah was a distinguished determine throughout Egypt’s 2011 Arab Spring rebellion and undertook starvation strikes whereas imprisoned, drawing worldwide consideration to his case.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2151134/labour-starmer-alaa-abd-el-fattah