Counter Terrorism Police are assessing Egyptian extremist Alaa Abd El-Fattah's tweets, after he described the killing of Zionists as heroic and appeared to call for violence against the police.
Mr El-Fattah returned to the UK on Boxing Day after receiving a pardon from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
An official Counter Terrorism Policing spokesman said: "We have received a number of public referrals in recent days relating to various historical social media posts.
"As with all such referrals, the posts are now in the process of being assessed by specialist officers within the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU).
"Should any potential offences be identified, then, depending on the nature of the offences, the CTIRU will either refer the matter to the relevant investigation team within Counter Terrorism Policing, or to the relevant local police force to consider for further investigation."
Mr El-Fattah had been imprisoned for five years on charges of spreading false news, in a process branded a breach of international law by UN investigators.
He originally gained British citizenship under the Conservative government in 2021.
Counter Terrorism Police are assessing Egyptian extremist Alaa Abd El-Fattah's tweets, after he described the killing of Zionists as heroic and British people as "dogs and monkeys" on social media
| GETTYFollowing Mr El-Fattah's return to the country, Sir Keir Starmer welcomed his return and said he was "delighted".
"I want to pay tribute to Alaa's family, and to all those that have worked and campaigned for this moment," the Prime Minister said in a social media post.
"Alaa's case has been a top priority for my government since we came to office. I'm grateful to President Sisi for his decision to grant the pardon."
However, Downing Street since said the Prime Minister had been unaware of the activist’s historical tweets until after he re-entered the country.
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Sir Keir Starmer previously spoke out about Mr El-Fattah in 2022 and celebrated his return on Boxing Day
| PAAlong with Counter Terrorism Police, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said she has asked a senior Foreign Office official to urgently review the "serious information failures" in the case of Mr El-Fattah.
Ms Cooper said that neither she nor Sir Keir were briefed on the social posts before the activist arrived in the country last week.
The Foreign Secretary said that she "very much regrets" the Government's public welcome for Mr El-Fattah, and it had "added to the distress felt by Jewish communities in the UK".
The Prime Minister has also since condemned the social media posts as "absolutely abhorrent" and said the Government was "taking steps to review the information failures in this case".
Much of the social media posts from Mr El-Fattah that have come into question, where he appeared to call for violence against Zionists and the police, occurred between 2010 and 2012.
In the posts, he is alleged to have described the killing of Zionists as heroic, adding that "we need to kill more of them".
"By the way I’m a racist, I don’t like white people so p*** off," another post is said to have read.
Mr El-Fattah has since apologised for the historic tweets, saying: "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."
He did add, however, that some of the tweets had been "completely misunderstood, seemingly in bad faith" and "twisted out of their meaning".
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