Democracy activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah has apologised “unequivocally” for several 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”.

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 this year after years of lobbying by Conservative and Labour governments.

He flew to the UK on Boxing Day and was reunited with his son, who lives in Brighton, after a travel ban was lifted.

Since then, posts from as early as 2010 have surfaced in which the activist appears to call for violence against Zionists and the police.

“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 the revocation of my citizenship,” he said in a statement issued on Monday.

“Looking at the tweets now – the ones that were not completely twisted out of their meaning – I do understand how shocking and hurtful they are, and for that I unequivocally apologise.

“They were mostly expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations in a time of regional crises (the wars on Iraq, on Lebanon and Gaza), and the rise of police brutality against Egyptian youth.

“I particularly regret some that were written as part of online insult battles, with the total disregard for how they read to other people. I should have known better.”

Read More: British activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah apologises ‘unequivocally’ for social media posts