Patrick Zaki turns 30 in prison, after 493 days without trial
Patrick Zaki turns 30 in prison
Since he was arrested a year ago, he has not yet been put on trial. The Cairo judges renew the detention periods from hearing to hearing
(Photo: Roberto Brancolini) Today Patrick Zaki turns 30 and for the second time he will have to spend his birthday in a Cairo prison. The student from the University of Bologna was arrested in February last year on charges of having spread "subversive propaganda on the internet" content from a Facebook account that was seized by the Egyptian prosecutor and which is believed to be false by the defense of the young man.Since that 7 February 2020, despite appeals from authorities, parties, human rights associations and a motion filed in the Senate to grant Zaki Italian citizenship, the regime of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi has is refused to open a real trial, to release him or to mediate in order to reach a resolution of the dispute. While the Cairo judge charged with deciding on Zaki's fate does nothing but renew his detention for 45 days at a time, hearing after hearing. The latest, held on June 3, took place behind closed doors, without lawyers or observers from the embassies. Riccardo Noury, spokesman for the NGO Amnesty international Italia interviewed by the Huffington post, explained that according to Egyptian law these extensions could continue for another year until February 7, 2022. However, Noury continued, the government could also advance new accusations that they can justify "in an instrumental way" an extension of the detention.
Meanwhile, according to his lawyers, Zaki's health condition deteriorated during his detention and he was also diagnosed with depressive disorder at the last hearing, Fanpage reported. In addition, despite suffering from asthma, the authorities in Cairo also refused to vaccinate the student against Covid-19, ignoring the requests of the lawyer and the family, Amnesty reported.
In Italy, many municipalities they are continuing to give the boy honorary citizenship as a sign of solidarity. However, L’Espresso recalls, several administrations led by the center-right are refusing to do the same, such as Genoa or Treviso. While today, the city of Bologna has launched various initiatives to advance the cause of the young student's liberation. Together with the university they organized the Patrick World Heritage exhibition, under the arcades leading to the Basilica of San Luca to remember the stories of 50 prisoners of conscience, arrested in 13 countries, including Zaki himself.
Politics - 2 hours ago
The government expands the national perimeter for cybersecurity
adsJSCode ("nativeADV1", [[2,1]], "true", "1", "native", "read-more", "1"); Business - 2 hours ago
Why the fashion world fell in love with video games
adsJSCode ("nativeADV2", [[2,1]], "true", "2", " native "," read-more "," 2 "); Tech - 3 hours ago
A lawsuit against Facebook strengthens the powers of European privacy guarantors
Topics
Italian Government Legal Mario Draghi globalData.fldTopic = "Government, Italy, Legal, Mario Draghi "
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Zaki citizenship urged on 30th birthday
(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 16 - Italian politicians called for the government to give an Egyptian Bologna university researcher Italian citizenship as he marked his 30th birthday in detention in Cairo on sedition charges Wednesday. 'Today Patrick Zaki turns 30. In a cell. We ask the government to apply the unanimous indication of parliament and give him citizenship,' said Enrico Letta, a former premier and leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD). The PD's Emilia-Romagna governor, Stefano Bonaccini, said 'today Patrick Zaki marks his birthday and for the second time will 'celebrate' it in prison. All this is unacceptable and we will continue to strongly call for his release and the conferral of Italian citizenship. 'We want Patrick to come back and study here in Bologna'. Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Benedetto Della Vedova told Rainews24 recently that the government will shortly start to 'verify the conditions for the granting of Italian citizenship' to Zaki. Zaki is an Egyptian Bologna University postgraduate student who has been held in Egypt since February 7 last year on charges of 'disseminating false news' and 'incitement to protest'. The Senate has approved a motion calling on the government to grant him Italian citizenship. Della Vedova likened Zaki's case to the 'tragic affair' of 28-year-old Italian student Giulio Regeni, who was tortured to death in Cairo in early 2016. 'The parliamentary motion gives a commitment to the government, which came out in favour of the motion itself,' he said. Zaki, a 29-year-old Coptic Christian, is pursuing an Erasmus Mundus Master's Degree in Women and Gender Studies at the University of Bologna. He also conducts research and advocacy on gender issues and human rights for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a human rights organization based in Cairo. Petitions for his release have been rejected on countless occasion. Zaki was arrested on arriving at Cairo International Airport when he returned home from Bologna for a short family visit. The Egyptian National Security Agency reportedly arrested Zaki, interrogated him about his time in Italy and his human rights work, and took him to an undisclosed location. During interrogation, he was allegedly frequently threatened, beaten on his stomach and back and tortured with electric shocks. The European Parliament, Amnesty International and Scholars At Risk have been among the bodies calling for his release, along with the Italian government. (ANSA).
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA ]]>Ottieni il codice embed
]]>
