Patrick Zaki is free: he was released after the pardon granted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. came out of the building of the New Mansura Police Directorate, ascertained by ANSA on the spot. As soon as he was released, after shaking hands with a security man in a striped T-shirt on the edge of a series of barriers, Patrick Zaki embraced his mother Hala for several seconds, then his girlfriend Reny Iskander, his sister Marise and his father George.
In the New Mansura Police Directorate, Patrick Zaki was not locked up in a security cell but slept in a room for officers, said the boy’s mother.
Patrick Zaki: “I want to return to Italy as soon as possible”
“Now I’m free, I’m thinking of returning to Italy as soon as possible, let’s hope it happens soon”: Patrick Zaki told reporters near the New Mansura police headquarters immediately after being released. “I’m thinking of returning to Bologna, to be with my colleagues at the university”, said the recent graduate of the Alma Mater. “Now I’m going back to Cairo,” he said, still haunted by questions. “Directly?”, ANSA asked him (ie without going through Mansura, where the family has a house): “Cairo”, Zaki limited himself to replying.
Tajani: ‘No bartering with the Regeni case for Zaki’
“No bartering, no under-the-counter negotiations. The government was able to get a young researcher back to Italy who risked spending some time in prison. We managed to achieve this result. Then you can say what you want. We are serious people, we don’t do this type of bartering”. This was stated by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on Radio 24 on an alleged barter between the release of Patrick Zaki and the Regeni case. As for Regeni, he added, “we will continue to ask for light to be shed on the matter as we have always done, we have put the two issues on the same level”.
Egypt: “Zaki’s pardon is al-Sisi’s appreciation for Italy”
“The use by (Egyptian President Abdel Fattah) al-Sisi of his constitutional authority to grant the presidential pardon is a (…) personal appreciation of the depth and strength of Italian-Egyptian relations, and the speed of the pardon is the best proof of this, especially since it took place less than 24 hours after the final sentence was issued”, said the Egyptian ambassador in Rome, Bassam Rady, in a message to ANSA, referring to the act of clemency by the head of state of Egypt towards Patrick Zaki.
The Italian rectors: ‘The solution to the case is good, now there are answers on Regeni’
The rectors of Italian universities “applaud the long-awaited epilogue for Patrick Zaki” but hope “similar results for the case of Giulio Regenistill waiting for a clarifying answer”. The Rectors’ conference of Italian universities also calls for a solution for the researcher of the University of Eastern Piedmont, Ahmadreza Djalaliheld on death row in Iran and accused of espionage despite the absence of evidence.
“Freedom of expression is a fundamental right that the university not only teaches,” he said Salvatore Cuzzo creates, President of CRUI – but builds one brick at a time in the daily practice of critical thinking. In this sense, Patrick’s freedom is a victory for that whole movement, peaceful and determined, which for years has never stopped fighting and hoping. Obviously, the
All thanks from the academic community also go to the institutions that carried out the very delicate diplomatic interlocutions and to the mission to Egypt of Ministers Bernini and Tajani which allowed this result to materialize. Today is a happy day for the Italian university”.
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