Egyptian court releases investigator Patrick Zaki: Rights group | Human Rights News
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An Egyptian court has ordered the release of Patrick George Zaki, who is being held in custody, while investigating the trial of human rights defenders and the Prime Minister of Italy.
The Mansoura city court in the Nile Delta has postponed until February 1 to allow Zaki’s trial and defense attorneys to prepare their arguments, the Egyptian Personal Rights Initiative (EIPR) representing Zaki said on Tuesday.
Zaki they were arrested On February 7, 2020, he visited his family after landing at Cairo International Airport. He is accused of “spreading fake news” in an article he wrote the state of Christians Egypt.
Zaki spent more than a year and a half in pre-trial detention in September.
Previously, she worked as a researcher on the Egyptian Personal Rights Initiative (EIPR), a major independent rights group in the country.
The trial’s arguments are yet to be heard when it resumes on February 1, the EIPR’s Lobna Darwish said.
“While the judge delayed and released him,” he said, adding that it was not immediately clear how Zaki would be released physically.
Zaki was originally in his hometown of Mansura, north of Cairo, on Tuesday, but was no longer in the courtroom when the judge announced his decision, Darwish said.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said he was “pleased” in a statement from his office. “The problem has been and will continue to be seen by the Italian government,” he said.
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Twitter: “The first goal has been achieved. Patrick Zaki is no longer in prison. ”
Urgent: The Mansoura Second Division Emergency Security Court decided to release Patrick George Zaki, postponing his trial until February 1, 2022. pic.twitter.com/qj23HPfAnw
– Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (@EIPR) December 7, 2021
Translation: The Mansoura misdemeanor court decided to release Patrick George Zaki, postponing his trial until February 1, 2022.
The EIPR says Zaki was beaten, electrocuted and threatened after his arrest. The Egyptian authorities have not commented on the EIPR’s claims.
“I’m jumping for joy!” his mother Hala Sobhy told the AFP news agency. “Now we’re on our way to the Mansoura police station.”
The move was welcomed by human rights activists who have long fought for its release, such as Riccardo Noury, a spokesman for Amnesty International in Italy.
“Although he is still on trial, he is making great strides,” Noury wrote on Twitter.
Amr Abdelwahab, an activist and friend of the jailed investigator, warned that Zaki could still face a prison sentence.
“Still Patrick is being tried for writing an article, we don’t know for sure if he can travel or spend time in police stations. We are not sure if he will be sentenced to prison in February, ”he said on social media.
Let us be clear, the fact that the order has been released today does not mean anything
Patrick is still being tried for writing an article, we don’t know for sure if he can travel or spend time in police stations.
We don’t know if he will be sentenced to prison in February
– Amr Abdelwahab (Amr) (@amrAbdelwahab) December 7, 2021
Rights activists say Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has overseen unprecedented crackdown on freedom – including banning all unauthorized demonstrations – since he took power in 2013 and won the 2014 election.
Tens of thousands of people have been jailed, according to human rights groups. El-Sisi says security and stability are key and denies that there are political prisoners in Egypt.
Egyptian law has expanded the definition of “terrorism” to include all political dissent, and has given prosecutors broad powers to keep people detained for months. years too, without ever filing a complaint or presenting evidence.
Zaki’s arrest has shaken Italy, where the researcher is pursuing a master’s degree in gender and women’s studies at the University of Bologna. It comes after the murder of an Italian graduate student in Egypt in 2016 Giulio Regeni, which shook relations between the two countries.
No one has been arrested for the murder of a 28-year-old man, although Italian prosecutors have accused Regen of kidnapping and killing four members of the Egyptian security forces.
Italy has begun a trial against the four suspects, however the procedure was suspended in October, for not knowing that the men had been prosecuted.
“We will continue to help him,” Erasmo Palazzotto, chairman of the parliamentary inquiry into Regeni’s death in Italy, wrote on Twitter, referring to the Zaki case.
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