CAIRO (AP) — A prominent Egyptian rights activist with ties to Italy was released from jail Thursday, days after he was sentenced to three years' imprisonment, according to his family and a rights defender.
Patrick George Zaki, a postgraduate student in Italy, was pardoned by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi along with five other people on Wednesday, according to the country’s Official Gazette.
Zaki's release was first announced by Hossam Bahgat, founder of Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, who posted a picture of him on Facebook on Thursday afternoon. His sister, Marise Zaki, also confirmed his release, posting a photo on Facebook of him speaking to journalists after his release.
“Patrick is on the Asfalt,” she wrote on Facebook, using a phrase that activists often use when detainees walk free.
In an ANSA video — aired on Italy’s SkyTG24 — Zaki was seen hugging his sister and other family members in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura to Cairo.
“We’re very happy. Finally, this calamity came to an end,” his sister, Marise, told the AP over the phone while traveling from Mansoura to Cairo.
Zaki, who is Christian, was arrested in February 2020, shortly after landing in Cairo on a trip home from Italy where he was studying at the University of Bologna, over an opinion article he wrote in 2019. He was released in December 2021 after spending 22 months in pretrial detention, but had to remain in Egypt and wasn't allowed to travel abroad, pending trial.
On Tuesday, Zaki was sentenced to three years in prison in the case, Egypt’s MENA news agency said.
In a recorded speech late Wednesday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that Zaki would return to Italy on Thursday. However, it remained unclear whether he will be able to travel. Egyptian authorities often retain travel bans on former detainees after their release.
“I want to thank the intelligence, both Italian and Egyptian diplomats, who in recent months have never stopped working to reach the desired solution.” Meloni said. The Italian government had repeatedly called for Zaki’s release since his arrest.
Zaki’s case has reverberated across Italy, with his sentencing reminding many of the tragic fate of Italian student Giulio Regeni who was abducted and killed in Cairo in 2016.
After obtaining his master’s degree earlier this month, the researcher plans to embark on a Ph.D., his father, George Zaki has said. He is also scheduled to get married later this year, his father added.
Zaki was pardoned Wednesday along with Mohammed el-Baker, a rights lawyer, who was arrested in September 2019, the Middle East News Agency reported.
El-Baker’s defense lawyer, Ahmed Ragheb, said they were still waiting Thursday afternoon outside a prison complex in eastern Cairo for his release.
He was sentenced to four years in prison late in 2021 over charges of disseminating false news, misuse of social media and joining a terrorist group. El-Baker was arrested when he attended the questioning by prosecutors of jailed activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah.
Egypt has pardoned dozens of detainees in recent months after its human rights record came under international scrutiny when it hosted the U.N. climate change summit in November.
The government has relentlessly silenced dissidents and clamped down on independent organizations for years with arrests, detentions, prison sentences and other restrictions. Rights groups estimate that thousands of political prisoners remain in custody, many without trials.
