Egypt. Senate approves citizenship motion for Zaki with 208 votes

• Zaki case.

  Senate starts discussion on granting citizenship

• Zaki: another 45 days in prison and no change of judges

• Zaki case.

  The lawyer: "Fierce, asked to replace judges. I don't think the release. He's sick"

• Zaki, detention hearing ended.

  The lawyer: "I don't think they'll release him"

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April 14, 2021 The Senate chamber approved with 208 votes in favor, 33 abstentions (among them the Fdi senators) and no contrary to the agenda that commits the government "to promptly initiate the necessary checks through the competent institutions in order to to confer Italian citizenship on Patrick George Zaki pursuant to paragraph 2 of article 9, of the aforementioned law no. 91 of 1992 ".

Two motions were initially presented, one from the Democratic Party and the other from M5s, which then merged into an agenda to allow for a single vote.

With respect to the first signed motion by Verducci (Pd) and Segre, present in the courtroom, the approved agenda was modified with the recommendations of the Deputy Minister Marina Sereni who invited to include in the motion a reference to the need to verify all the conditions in given the possible granting of citizenship, a measure that could even prove counterproductive to the objective of Zaki's release.

In fact, initially the dem motion committed the government tout court "to urgently undertake all the necessary initiatives so that Zaki is recognized as Italian citizenship".

The approval of the motion that commits the government to start the process for granting Italian citizenship to Patrick Zaki is an important act, which demonstrates how the story of the Egyptian student of the University of Bologna, which has exceeded 14 months of detention, is a priority that the Italian Parliament intends to address and continue to follow carefully. "So said Riccardo Noury, spokesman for Amnesty International Italia, after the vote in favor of the motion discussed today in the Senate.

"We hope that the granting of Italian citizenship, as well as reiterating that Patrick Zaki's is a human rights violation affair that also affects our country, will encourage Patrick's release", added Noury . The spokesman added: "However, we cannot fail to note the inconsistency of a government which, despite showing itself, with the commitment undertaken today, is concerned

for the fate of Patrick Zaki, its relations with a repressive government such as that of President al-Sisi are continuing without interruption: a few days ago, in fact, the second military frigate was handed over to the Egyptian state ".

Noury ​​therefore concludes: "We reiterate once again that no political-economic motivation can overshadow the horrible violations of human rights in Egypt such as those to which Patrick Zaki has been subjected for over 14 months and which affect many activists, lawyers, defenders of human rights and journalists arbitrarily detained solely for their opinions ".

"With the approval of a sacrosanct motion in his favor, the Egyptian student Patrick Zaki will be recognized as Italian citizenship. We are honored by the presence of Liliana Segre who at 90 shows that certain battles unite and converge" .

Senator Nicola Morra writes it in a tweet.