What is the proper punishment for hateful social media posts? Should you lose your account? Your job? Your citizenship? Go to jail? Die? For the people who have launched a campaign against the British-Egyptian writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, no punishment is too great.

I have no interest in defending the awful tweets in question, which Abd el-Fattah posted in the early 2010s. Many are indefensible and he has apologised “unequivocally” for them. He has also written movingly about how his perspective has changed in the intervening years. Years that have included more than a decade in jail, most of it in Egypt’s notorious Tora prison where he faced torture; missing his son’s entire childhood – and very nearly dying during a months-long hunger strike.

None of this suffering seems to be enough for Abd el-Fattah’s accusers. They want this man and this family to suffer yet more punishment. They are calling for him to be stripped of his British citizenship, to which he is entitled because his mother was born in the UK, and for him to be deported back to Egypt, the country that already robbed him of 12 years of his freedom. It’s a fate that could be a death sentence.

I do not believe that piling torment on top of torture is what decent British people consider justice, let alone proportionate punishment.

Alaa Abd el-Fattah came to global attention because he was a leading figure in the 2011 pro-democracy revolution that turned Cairo’s Tahrir Square into a surging sea of young people. The demonstrators chanted “Down with corruption”, “Down with autocracy” and “Down with dictators.” When the uprising succeeded in toppling Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak, the world rejoiced, including Europe and North America. Abd el-Fattah was all over the media, a voice for the part of the movement that was committed to building an accountable, participatory democracy from the ground up.

But the Tahrir Square victory was short lived. The military seized power and violently turned on the young protesters. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were killed and tens of thousands were thrown in jail. Alaa Abd el-Fattah was among them, and it soon became clear that keeping him behind bars was a top priority for the generals who ultimately replaced Mubarak. #FreeAlaa became a global rallying cry and remained so for well over a decade – until this past September, when Alaa finally walked free.

A travel ban imposed by Egypt still prevented Abd el-Fattah from leaving the country and reuniting with his son in the UK. Then, on Boxing Day, he landed at Heathrow, soon to celebrate his son’s birthday for the first time in 12 years. But that joy wouldn’t last long either: the calls for his deportation were unleashed less than 24 hours after he landed.

Abd el-Fattah’s tweets surfaced online on 27 December, and were quickly........

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