A hardcover where Patrick Zaki should be today, in flesh and blood.
The young Egyptian student from the University of Bologna, in prison in Egypt since February 7, 2020, should have graduated today. And the University, despite the very heavy absence, still decided to deliver him the degree diploma of the European Master in Gemma gender studies.
The silhouette of the boy, the day after the news of the start of the trial after 19 months of custody in a cell, thus stood out on the benches of the rectorate of Bologna.
"We all ask together that Patrick be acquitted of unjust accusations and that he be finally released" because "he needs to return here to us in the University as a free man", said the rector of the University of Bologna Francesco Ubertini opening the delivery of diplomas . "The University - he continued - will continue to make its voice heard to repeat with unchanged force that Patrick does not stay and must not remain alone. Study and intellectual work are a force that cannot be hindered by any country, in any historical moment ".
"Patrick must be able to write his thesis, he must discuss it and he must come back here: on this we must be adamant. Patrick we are with you and we reiterate that human rights require your release - he added -. The first hearing of the trial worried us and solicits our attention and our commitment even more. It is not possible to forget his condition even for a single day. Patrick's life could now be a life that is projected into the intellectual world and research. Instead he is harnessed in the rules that are held in prison ".
"The first message of solidarity and affection - the words of Riccardo Noury, spokesperson for Amnesty International in Italy - is for Patrick's classmates and classmates who have faced a very important day in a situation of great pain and that perhaps they would have liked a very intimate moment to remember Patrick's absence. The second thought goes to Patrick. It is to be hoped that there will be a compensatory action against him that will come through a quick release, to make up for the time that was done to him lose from the Egyptian judiciary with these 19 and a half months in prison and with the process that has just begun ".
