“It is thanks to all of you that I am at home”. Patrick Zaky in connection from Cairo with Fabio Fazio to “Che tempo che fa” on Rai3 thrills. “Now I’m really fine and I have to thank everyone, I’m still trying to understand what happened to me, I feel like I’m in a dream”, his first words. The smile, the joy in the eyes, the audience standing, a standing ovation for him.
Fazio greets him and immediately asks him when and how he learned that he was released. “When I was able to look at the street and get out of the police station, when they removed the handcuffs, I was very confused, I asked my family: what is happening, but have they really let me free?”. After 22 months of imprisonment Patrick Zaky, the Egyptian student enrolled in the Gemma master in Gender Studies at the University of Bologna, was released from prison, but not acquitted. He will have to face the trial in the hearing scheduled for February 1st. Italy and its Bologna are waiting for him, the university demands him in the classroom. But when it can come is an unknown. Before or after the trial? “I think I have to ask my lawyers before I can come, since the hearing has not yet been held, I can’t leave the country for the moment – replies Patrick – but what I know for sure is that for the moment I don’t have no travel ban, so I think I can come to Italy as soon as possible, maybe tomorrow in Bologna, which is a dream if I could get there, but I hope to make it “.
Regarding the outcome of the hearing he said: “I don’t know, I keep my fingers crossed, I hope to return to Bologna, I just think about that”.
At home with Zaky: “In my cell I consoled myself with Ferrante’s books”
by our correspondent Francesca Caferri
The hardest moment? “Well, I was cut off from everything, of course the most terrible moment was at passport control when they said to me: wait two minutes. I was scared, one of the most terrible moments, I hope it doesn’t happen to anyone.” Patrick found the strength to resist in his innocence and, then, he says, “I tried to turn every single step and everything in my favor, the love of my family, my friends and all my Bolognese who they helped “, this is his strength.
There is a lot of Bologna in his words, the affection for the city and the university, the studies he wants to finish, the thanks to his teacher, Rita Monticelli who says he considers not only a mentor, but a person of the family.
Fabio Fazio asks him what he missed most: “There is not just one thing, of course my family, friends, food, my fellow students in Bologna and my books”. Once he gets home Patrick says he did a first “anomalous” thing, that is the shower with hot water: “My body wanted the sensation of hot water”.
At home with Zaky: “In my cell I consoled myself with Ferrante’s books”
by our correspondent Francesca Caferri
Fazio shows the images of what happened for him in Italy in recent months, from the first demonstration in Bologna a few days after his arrest in Cairo on February 7, 2020 – five thousand in procession with the mayor and the rector – to the many interventions between including that of the president of the European parliament David Sassoli, Roberto Saviano, who asks for Italian citizenship for him, and Liliana Segre, who considers him as a grandson. “I felt it – says Patrick – it is really a great honor for me to be mentioned by Liliana Segre who has an incredible vision, I will have great pleasure if I can meet her and tell her what I can, she was a great inspiration”.
“Zaky will return to Italy”: Al Sisi’s strategy to rebuild his image
by our correspondent Francesca Caferri
Zaky is a fan of Bologna who lost to Torino today, Fazio informs him. He laughs, “come on, these things happen. But I don’t think it’s a bad season, I’m a big fan, I have the Bologna bracelet.” The near future, explains Patrick, is studying in Bologna, “I have to get my master, maybe I will live in Bologna, I feel Bolognese, I want to do something for this city of mine that has supported me in all these months”.
Zaky case, students’ letters to Patrick liberato: “I won’t graduate if you’re not here”
by Ilaria Venturi
The reactions were immediate. “Patrick’s smile, after 22 months of nightmare, caused a very strong emotion. His words confirmed that Bologna had an effect-resistance on his mood – he declares Riccardo Noury, spokesperson for Amnesty International Italia – We are waiting for him soon even though we know that between his desire and his realization there is still a hearing in the trial. But we are confident “.
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