Staff Writer
On Sunday, July 23, a prominent Egyptian activist who had just been released from prison arrived in Italy, where the authorities stood up for him.
After taking a commercial flight, Patrick George Zaki arrived at Milan’s Malpensa Airport and was met by cheers and a sea of video and still cameras. Before being imprisoned in Cairo in 2020, he had been living and studying in Bologna.
As he made his way through the Milan airport, 32-year-old Zaki told reporters, “This is the most significant day of my life.” Later, in Bologna, he promised to keep working for human rights.
The tragic story of Italian student Giulio Regeni, who was kidnapped and died in Cairo in 2016, has been mirrored in Italy by Zaki’s case. Since Zaki’s arrest in 2020, the Italian government has demanded his release on numerous occasions.
Giorgia Meloni, the premier of Italy, told journalists in Rome that Zaki’s return was “the result of diplomacy, founded on the basis of mutual respect.”
She continued by saying that Italy had continued to press Egyptian officials for information regarding Regeni’s fate. “I don’t think the matter is resolved. Like I did with Zaki’s case, I continue to work on it without commenting (publicly).
