The Egyptian court has ordered the release of researcher Patrick Zaki (Patrick Zaki), who was detained in February last year, which has sparked international condemnation, especially in Italy His family said that he has been studying there.
“I jumped for joy!” his mother Hala Sobhi told AFP. “We are now on the way to Mansoura Police Station,” Zaki is from a city in the Nile Delta in Egypt.
Zaki still faces charges of “spreading false information,” “endangering national security,” and “inciting subversion of the country.”
According to the Egyptian Individual Rights Initiative (EIPR), a local NGO working with him, his trial has been postponed to February.
In September, Zha Gene extracted an article from his personal diary about the discrimination faced by the Coptic Christian minority in the country and was therefore tried before a special national security court.
Coptic Christians make up about 10-15% of the country’s more than 100 million people.
Amnesty International previously stated that Zaki was allegedly tortured during interrogation by national security officials, including the use of electric shocks and beatings.
In June of this year, his mother told AFP: “When I imagined his imprisonment, I felt I was going to suffocate… We thought he would be sentenced to prison for a few weeks, but this has been going on for more than a year. “
Zaki’s detention was particularly condemned in Italy, where he has been studying and recently tried in absentia for the murder of Italian doctoral candidate Giulio Regeni in Egypt in 2016.
Regni’s body was found to show signs of torture a few days after it disappeared on the fifth anniversary of the uprising on January 25. A recent report by the Italian Parliamentary Committee attributed his torture and death to Egypt’s national security agency.
Thousands of people in Italy signed a petition calling for Zacchi’s release, and the Senate voted to grant him Italian citizenship in April, allowing him to obtain consular support.
Soon after the court’s ruling, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on Twitter: “The first goal was achieved: Patrick Zaki is no longer in prison…Thank us Diplomatic mission.”
Since President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi took office in 2014, Egypt’s space for dissent has been severely restricted. In recent years, the authorities have specifically targeted EIPR.
The founder of the human rights organization Hossam Bahgat was fined by the court last month for “insulting” tweets. He welcomed the news of Zaki’s release and wrote on social media: “Thank God”.
Three EIPR staff were sentenced to jail last year, sparking an international movement supported by celebrities including actor Scarlett Johansson, leading to their release.
Several researchers were jailed, including Ahmed Samir, a graduate student at the Central European University in Vienna, and Kholoud Amer, the head of the translation department of the Alexandria Library.
Egypt ranks lowest in the Academic Freedom Index of the Global Public Policy Institute.
Also on Tuesday, five human rights organizations called on French President Emmanuel Macron to pressure Egypt to release the Egyptian-Palestinian militant Rami Shaas.
Macron had previously presented his case at a live press conference with Sisi in Paris, but Shaath, the son of senior Palestinian politician Nabir Shaath, has been in prison since July 2019.
