What Diego Bertora wrote
Diego Bertora is a student at University College London. In a WhatsApp group he wrote this about Somali people:
“Somali culture is full of incest FGM scams and rape.”
He went on. A Somali man raised by “English Christians”, he wrote, would be “a fare more virtuous person than the average somali”, and “If he also wasnt inbred (very rare for a Somali) Hed likely be way smarter than the average somali.”
On Pakistanis and Afghans:
“Look up the rape stats eg of afgjanis and pakistanis its crazy. They shouldny be imported and we should put every reasonable measure to deport and encourage self deportations.”
On Muslims:
“Also muslims with their shariah ideology have no place in British society and we need to mass deport them.”
“Importing muslims is cultural suicide. We need mass deportations.”
Asked in the chat whether he had met a Muslim on his course, he said he had debated them at a UCL Islamic Society stall and that “they defended pedofilia as usual”.
What his classmates did
In April 2026 UCL students who had seen the messages reported him to UCL’s Casework Team, the office that runs student discipline. That is the route UCL tells students to use. The date is the reporting students’ own account.
The Casework Team has since written back to them. The case is “live and ongoing”. It is “a complex case which is being considered in line with our Code of Conduct and Code of Practice Freedom of Speech”. The team is “still waiting on further details on how the Casework Team can proceed”. UCL is “working to have an outcome before the start of next academic year”.
Term starts on Monday 28 September.
What UCL did last time
On 11 November 2025 Samar Maqusi, a former UCL researcher, spoke at a student society event on campus and repeated the blood libel, the medieval lie that Jews kill Christians for their blood.
By 13 November UCL had banned her from campus, reported her to the police, suspended the two student societies that hosted her and opened disciplinary proceedings against students. Michael Spence, UCL’s President and Provost, said: “Antisemitism has absolutely no place in our university.” Freedom of speech, he said, “can never be misused as a shield for hatred.”
Two days.
We take no view here on every step UCL took that week. The point is what UCL can do in two days once it decides a report is serious.
What Bertora did next
On 28 May Bertora went on NTD, a television channel owned by the Epoch Times group, and said UCL had “hit him with misconduct allegations over conservative views expressed in a private WhatsApp chat group”. The Free Speech Union is helping him with his case.
The Free Speech Union is defending a student who wrote that Somalis are inbred.
What the law says
UCL’s email cites its Code of Practice on Freedom of Speech. The law behind that code is narrower than the email suggests.
Since August 2025 every university has had a legal duty to protect lawful speech, and the regulator, the Office for Students, has told them where the line is. Its guidance says lawful speech “may be offensive or hurtful to some” and is still protected. It also says speech that “amounts to unlawful harassment or unlawful incitement to hatred” is not protected at all.
So the messages have to be sorted, one group at a time.
Messages about Islam and Muhammad. Bertora called Muhammad a “pedo warlord barbarian false prophet” and wrote that he “raped a 9 year old”. That is abuse of a religion. The law protects it. Section 29J of the Public Order Act 1986 says the offence of stirring up religious hatred does not cover “discussion, criticism or expressions of antipathy, dislike, ridicule, insult or abuse of particular religions”. UCL cannot discipline him for those messages, and it should not try.
Messages about Somalis, Pakistanis and Afghans. These are different. Section 17 of the same Act defines a racial group by “colour, race, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origins”. Somalis, Pakistanis and Afghans are racial groups. Section 18 makes it an offence to use “threatening, abusive or insulting” words about a racial group where racial hatred is likely to be stirred up. There is no carve-out for insulting a race the way there is for insulting a religion. “Somali culture is full of incest FGM scams and rape” is a statement about a racial group.
Messages about the students around him. The Equality Act 2010 defines harassment as “unwanted conduct” related to race or religion that creates “an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment” for a person. The Muslim students Bertora says he debated study at the same university he does. Since August 2025 UCL has had a regulatory duty, condition E6, to protect students from harassment by other students. The regulator’s own guidance says free speech duties “should not be considered to be a barrier” to acting on it.
The Free Speech Union is defending the first group of messages. Bertora’s classmates reported the second and third.
What UCL’s own code says
UCL’s disciplinary code lists “threatening, offensive or indecent behaviour or language that causes distress to others” as a major offence. Major offences go to a panel. The panel can expel.
The code also lets UCL suspend or exclude a student while a case is open, where there is a risk to others. UCL used powers like that within two days in November. The email to the students who reported Bertora mentions no precautionary measure of any kind.
Two days against five months
Same university. Same code. Same Provost. One report got a campus ban, a police referral and a public statement in two days. The other has had five months and an email saying the team is still waiting to find out how it can proceed.
Nobody at UCL has explained the difference.
What UCL should do before 28 September
- Give the students who reported him the outcome UCL promised, before term starts.
- Say whether any precautionary measure was taken while the case was open. If none was, say why, given the code allows it and UCL used it in November.
- Publish, with names removed, how long each non-academic misconduct case involving racial or religious hostility took to conclude in 2025-26.
UCL has shown what it can do in two days. Its Somali, Pakistani and Muslim students have been waiting since April to find out whether that applies to them.
What we hold, and what we are still checking
- The messages. Quoted from screenshots of the WhatsApp group published on Instagram by a campaign account calling for his expulsion. We have asked the students who reported him for the original chat export, the group’s name and size, and the date of each message. Bertora calls the group “private”; the campaign account calls it “public”. We say neither until we know.
- The Casework Team’s email. A screenshot passed to us by a person in contact with the reporting students. The date of the April report and the case reference are theirs; we are seeking the documents.
- Bertora’s interview. NTD, “UK Student Faces Probe Over Conservative Views”, 28 May 2026. The Free Speech Union’s involvement is stated in NTD’s own description of the segment.
- The November timeline. Lecture 11 November 2025; Jewish News reported the campus ban, the police referral and the society suspensions on 13 November; UCL’s own statement carries the Provost’s words.
- UCL’s code. Student Casework Framework 2025-26, Chapter 6, Section 2, list of major offences, item 4.
- The law. Public Order Act 1986 sections 17, 18 and 29J; Equality Act 2010 section 26; Office for Students Regulatory advice 24, paragraphs 30 and 85, and the condition E6 free speech principles.
- Right of reply. This page will carry any response from UCL or from Mr Bertora, in full, as soon as one is received.