High-profile Egyptian activist who was released from jail after President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi granted him a pardon claims he would carry on advocating for human rights.
The Italian government supported Patrick George Zaki’s case, which resulted in his release after a three-year ordeal. Patrick George Zaki is a student at the University of Bologna. Zaki described his immediate goals.
“I will be in Bologna next Sunday night. After a long time, for three years, I was waiting for this moment, so I am really excited right now to be there again and I will be there for only two weeks and I will come back again because I have my wedding on the next September.
“So, I will be back to stay in Egypt and then after the wedding, I will go back to presume my academic career again in Bologna for my PhD.”
Egypt has been relentlessly suppressing dissent for almost ten years, yet in the last year, it has released scores of prisoners.
In the past, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, who has presided over the crackdown, denied that his nation had any political prisoners and defended government action by claiming it was necessary to stop the spread of terrorism.
Zaki expressed his optimism that a number of other well-known prisoners of conscience, including one of the most well-known, Alaa Abdel Fattah, will soon be freed.
“I wish in the upcoming days the Egyptian government could make more decisions considering like the prisoners of conscience, and more of them could be released in the upcoming days.
“Let’s hope that was the first or the start for a new beginning for a huge number of prisoners of consciousness who could be released.”
Christian Zaki was detained in February 2020 not long after arriving in Cairo for a brief flight home from Italy.
After writing an opinion piece in 2019 about alleged prejudice against the Coptic Christian minority in the nation, he was charged with “disseminating false news” and sentenced to prison. But he insisted that the experience would not deter him from advocating for others.
“I am a human rights defender and will keep defending human rights all over the world and will practise my job as normal, even when I wrote an article that caused me a problem, this will not change anything. And there was no discussions that I will stop anything.”
