Zaki, Amnesty International: the first hearing of the trial tomorrow
Patrick Zaki, preventive detention extended again: another 45 days of imprisonment
Egypt, NGO: Zaki again questioned, new accusations from the High Prosecutor's Office
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September 14, 2021
The first hearing in the trial of Patrick Zaki, the Egyptian student of the University of Bologna in prison in Egypt since February last year, is held this morning at a court of Mansura.
As announced yesterday by Egyptian NGOs, the indictment is accused of "spreading false news inside and outside the country" on the basis of an article written by Patrick in 2019 on Christians in Egypt, according to him persecuted although the circumstance is completely controversial.
The 30-year-old researcher and activist faces a fine or a sentence of up to five years in prison, predicts Amnesty International. As this is a State Security Court for minor offenses, the sentence will be final. As happened in all hearings for the renewal of pre-trial detention, the presence in Mansura of an Italian diplomatic representative in the context of EU trial monitoring is given for certain.
The Court is the second in the city on the Nile delta where Patrick was born and raised and where he was jailed for almost a month last year at the beginning of his pre-trial detention.
Court hearings begin at 9 am local and Italian time, but Patrick's should be held later, at around 10 or 11 according to the provisions of his lawyer. At the moment it is not clear how many hearings there could be. At least from the information released yesterday by ten NGOs and Amnesty, it seems that the most serious accusations, those of instigating the overthrow of the state and terrorism which were based on ten posts from a Facebook account, have fallen.