The trial of Egyptian researcher
Patrick Zaki, a student at the University of Bologna, was
adjourned for the umpteenth time on Tuesday, with a court in
Mansour failing to give a verdict and setting May 9 as the date
for another hearing.
Zaki was arrested February 2020 at Cairo airport after returning
to Egypt to visit his family and he is charged with allegedly
spreading fake news.
The case regards an article published in 2019 in which he
defended Copts, a Christian minority in Egypt, stressing the
bloody persecutions carried out by ISIS over the previous years
and two cases of social and judicial discrimination.
He was held in jail for 22 months in pre-trial custody on more
serious charges connected to 10 Facebook posts.
Although free, the researcher in gender studies cannot leave
Egypt.
"For the first time in three years, we had time to present our
defence," Zaki told ANSA.
"We had about 30 minutes to present everything about my case
from day one.
"We stressed that the article that I wrote fell within the realm
of freedom of expression".
Amnesty International Italia blasted the latest adjournment of
the "never-ending trial".
"Patrick won't give up and Amnesty International won't give up,"
Riccardo Noury, Amnesty International Italia's spokesperson,
told ANSA.
"It's fundamentally important that our public institutions do
something so that this trial ends soon and in the right way and
Patrick can return to Bologna.
"It will have been three and a half since since the start of
this nightmare in May. It must end".
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