The third hearing in the trial of Patrick Zaki, the Egyptian student of the University of Bologna accused of spreading false information through journalistic articles and detained in prison for several years, is scheduled for this morning in Mansura, Egypt on the Nile delta. 22 months.
"I'm fine, thanks Italy," Zaki replied from the defendants' cage to an Italian diplomat who asked him how he was. Patrick is dressed in white, the symbolic color of the accused, wearing a black mask lowered to his chin, a pigtail, glasses. Next to him, in front of the judge's bench, three lawyers and a policeman.
As announced by one of his lawyers, the hearing will be used by his pool of lawyers to present a defense brief prepared on the basis of the access to the documents obtained with the previous session, that of 28 September.
The single judge of a State Security Court for minor offenses in Patrick's hometown, in addition to possibly replying to the memory during the session, will decide whether to update the hearing again or to pronounce a conviction or final acquittal.
The 30-year-old, as his family members reported in recent days, was recently transferred from the Cairo prison of Tora, where he spent almost all of his pre-trial detention, to a prison in Mansura.
In court, many Italian diplomats and, at the request of the Italian Embassy, also from other countries to monitor the process as they had done before for all the renewal sessions of pre-trial detention.
Patrick was arrested on February 7, 2020 on his return to Egypt for a vacation and the 19 months of custody were justified with allegations of subversive propaganda made through ten Facebook posts.
The indictment took place instead for "spreading false news inside and outside the country" on the basis of three articles written by Zaki, including one from 2019 on Christians in Egypt persecuted by ISIS and discriminated against by sections of Muslim society.
The researcher and activist faces up to five years in prison.
This morning in the classroom there are, among others, George, Patrick's father, and his mother Hela with whom an Italian diplomat spoke briefly.
(Unioneonline / vl)
