PATRICK ZAKI: NEXT HEARING SEPTEMBER 28

In prison in Egypt since February 2020 and Italian citizen since April 2021, Patrick Zaki, 30, faces a five-year sentence on charges of “spreading false news inside and outside the country”. In fact, on Tuesday 14 September the first hearing of the trial was held in the court of Mansura, the boy’s hometown, 19 months after the beginning of his detention in preventive custody.
Arrested, interrogated and tortured by the Egyptian secret services due to an article written in 2019 in defense of the Coptic Christian minority, to which Patrick belongs.

As we have already stated in the past, the similarity with the case of Giulio Regeni, our compatriot, who lost his life in Egypt in a horrible and inhumane way, is huge.
Just as shamefully complicit is the timid stance towards the Egyptian regime by Italy and the European Union which, perhaps to safeguard commercial relations with a country that has a strategic role and position, derogate from respect for fundamental rights of the human being.

The next hearing will be held on September 28th. We at Steadfast will follow up and update you on the outcome.