A new motion is being discussed in the House to give Italian citizenship to Patrick Zaki

In April the Senate had already approved a proposal to grant citizenship to the student of the University of Bologna, but the government has not yet taken concrete measures to initiate the required procedures

(photo: Michele Lapini / Getty Images ) Although in April the Senate expressed itself favorably to grant Italian citizenship to Patrick Zaki, the government has not yet taken any step in this direction. Italian diplomatic action appears to be defenseless against the regime of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, which is endangering the life of a student at the University of Bologna, after having snatched that of Giulio Regeni from us five years ago. For this reason, some parliamentarians have decided to present a new motion in the House, to spur the government to act and finally start the procedures to give Zaki citizenship.

Patrick Zaki is an Egyptian boy who, in August in 2019, he had moved to Italy to attend the Gemma master, a program of the University of Bologna sponsored by the European Commission. Zaki had obtained one of the 29 scholarships of the project, chosen from around 600 participants. On 7 February, when he landed at Cairo airport, he was stopped by the police and held in pre-trial detention that has lasted for a year, accused of having spread "subversive propaganda on the Internet". The Egyptian initiative for personal rights (EIPR), an Egyptian organization for human rights, of which Zaki is a collaborator, denounced his disappearance. According to the reconstruction of the lawyers, Patrick was subjected to interrogation, beaten and tortured with electric shocks before being transferred to an office of the National Security Agency, those secret services responsible for the death of Giulio Regeni.

Since then, despite appeals from authorities, parties, human rights associations and the motion filed in the Senate to grant Zaki Italian citizenship, the Al Sisi regime has refused to open a real trial, to release him or to mediate 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, explained to the Huffington post 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 could to justify "in an instrumental way" an extension of the detention.

With the new motion, the deputies hope to be able to give a push to the government to "promptly initiate the necessary checks through the competent institutions in order to give Patrick George Zaki Italian citizenship pursuant to paragraph 2 of article 9 of the aforementioned law no. 91 of 1992 ", reports the agenda of today, July 6, of the Chamber. According to the signatories "the granting of Italian citizenship, even if it involves a long process, would represent a very strong signal both for Egypt and for the European allies who support the liberation of Zaki and would allow Italy and Europe to be able to exercise greater pressure on Cairo ".

The new motion was presented by and by the parliamentarians: Quartapelle Procopio, Sensi, Pastorino, Campana, Lattanzio, Perantoni, Fragomeli, Buratti, Bologna, Fusacchia, Muroni, Naples, Serracchiani, Fioramonti , Piccoli Nardelli, Tasso, Gagnarli, Nobili, Marco Di Maio, Siani, Ferri, Paita, Carelli, De Luca, Verini, Palmisano, Boldrini, Pollastrini, Fiano, Sarli, Bonomo, Maurizio Cattoi, Rossi, Fassino, Viscomi, Incerti, Gribaudo, Mura, Migliore, Zardini, Ciampi, Ungaro, Magi, La Marca, Pezzopane, Giachetti, Berti, Frailis, Lombardo, Vito, Carnevali, Pettarin, Pellicani, Bordo, Schirò, Fitzgerald Nissoli, De Maria, Bruno Bossio


Medicine - 4 hours ago

Is the vaccination campaign in Italy really slowing down?


Raffaella Carrà, story of an icon


The pandemic has increased privacy risks

Topics

Rights Giulio Regeni Italian Government globalData.fldTopic = "Rights, Giulio Regeni, Government, Italy "

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.