Patrick Zaki is free. He was released from the Mansura police station. To break the news is the NGO Eipr which also posts a photo on Twitter in which he is seen, dressed in white, embracing his mother.
Zaki: “I want to say thank you to Italy”
“Everything good”. These are the first words that Patrick Zaki spoke, speaking in Italian, as soon as he left the Mansura police station. “I want to say many thanks to the Italians, to Bologna, to the University, to my colleagues, to anyone who supported me,” said Patrick Zaki to Ansa, who had just arrived at the family home in Mansura after his release. “I’m waiting, I’ll see what happens in the next few days: I want to be in Italy as soon as possible, as soon as I can I’ll go directly to Bologna, my city, my people, my university,” added Patrick after his release.
Amnesty: a hug that has been awaited for 22 months
Amnesty: “We’ve been waiting to see that hug for 22 months and that hug comes from Italy, from all the people, all the groups and local authorities, the university, the parliamentarians who made sure that that hug came” Riccardo Noury, spokesman for Amnesty International Italia, told Ansa, commenting on the release of Zaki. «A hug – says Noury - especially to the media that have kept the attention high for these 22 months. Now that we have seen that embrace, we are waiting for this freedom to be not temporary but permanent. And with this hope we will arrive at February 1st, next hearing ».
In the mural in front of the Egyptian embassy the embrace with Regeni
Giulio Regeni hugs Patrick Zaki. This is the mural by street artist Laika that appeared this morning near Villa Ada, in Rome, where the Egyptian embassy in Italy is located. In the mural, with the background of a light that breaks the darkness of a tunnel, the Italian researcher killed in Egypt in 2016 surrounds Zaki’s life saying: “We’re almost there”. The student replies: “Hold me again.” To close the work the inscription, in Arabic, “Innocente”.
Sassoli: “Zaki is free, a beautiful day of hope”
«Here he is Patrick Zaki: fresh out of prison. The first hug. The image of a beautiful day, of hope », wrote on twitter the president of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, posting the image of the embrace between the young man and his mother at the exit of Mansoura prison.