Alaa Abd El-Fattah, who arrived in the UK last week after 12 years in Egyptian prison, was able to obtain British citizenship without going through a 'good character' check.
This was first revealed by The Telegraph on Sunday, which found that Fattah was automatically granted British citizenship in 2021 under an immigration law that allows mothers to transmit their UK citizenship to their children, even if they are outside Britain.
An amendment to the law in 2019 removed the need for the children to take the 'good character' test, deeming it "discriminatory." Consequently, some (including shadow cabinet members) have argued that Fattah would have failed the check due to his past indictment for violence, and would have therefore not been able to obtain citizenship if it were not for this loophole.
The change to the British Nationality Act 1981 occurred on 25 July 2019. While there is no statutory definition of good character, the Home Office's guidance list of behaviours states: "Unacceptable behaviour covers any non-UK national whether in the UK or abroad who uses any means or medium including writing, producing, publishing or distributing material to incite, justify or glorify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs; seek to provoke others to terrorist acts; provoke other serious criminal activity or seek to provoke others to serious criminal acts; or foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK."
"A person who has engaged in unacceptable behaviour will normally be refused British citizenship, unless they have publicly retracted their views and it is clear that they have not re-engaged in such behaviour," the guidance adds.
It also says that applicants who express opposition to British values, such as democracy or tolerance of different faiths, will usually be rejected.
Controversy over UK citizenship for Abd El-Fattah
Fattah made multiple comments in the past that may have led to his failure of this check. These include declaring “all Zionists are my enemies, all MB [Muslim Brotherhood] too, and definitely all police” in 2013, and, in 2011, “advocating killing police, hating white people.”
In 2012, he said that he rejoiced “when Zionists are killed,” and in 2010, he considered “killing any colonialists and especially Zionists heroic” and that “we need to kill more of them.”
El-Fattah in 2009 considered Jews to fall under white people since “whiteness can expand” and “Jews used to be outside the system of privilege, and now western ones are totally inside it.”
Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, told The Telegraph that the removal of the need for the ‘good character’ test "contributed to allowing this Britain-hating extremist to get citizenship demonstrates once again why we need to leave this broken organisation and set our own laws.”
“It is shameful that the ECHR was abused to allow this scumbag to get British citizenship without the usual checks, which would have exposed his extremism," said Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, added. “This is yet another case that shows why we must urgently leave the ECHR in order to get control of our borders, deport foreign criminals and illegal immigrants and prevent extremists like this from getting citizenship.”
Michael Starr contributed to this report.