The hearing tomorrow morning in the trial of Patrick Zaki in Mansura, Egypt, will be decisive, with a sentence or at least the setting of a date to pronounce it. This was confirmed by his main lawyer, Hoda Nasrallah.

"Tomorrow's session is decisive because, if the prosecution authorizes the lawyers to attend, they will make their speeches and ask for a sentence to be passed," explained the head of the pool of lawyers defending the Egyptian student from the University of Bologna.

If the sentence is not pronounced "just the same day, another date will be set (...) to render the sentence itself and conclude this process", added Hoda, contacted by telephone.

Patrick, after 22 months of pre-trial detention in prison, was released on 8 December despite remaining accused in his trial for "spreading false news inside and outside the country" and on the basis of his 2019 article on Christians in Egypt persecuted by Isis and discriminated against by fringes of Muslim society.

The maximum sentence for this type of charge is five years' imprisonment.

(Unioneonline / vl)

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