Patrick Zaki has been in prison for a year and a half, that's right.
The Egyptian student from the Alma Mater University of Bologna sleeps on the floor in a crowded cell in the infamous Tora prison on the outskirts of Cairo.
But despite the pressures of public opinion and the Italian-led European procedural monitoring, the doors of the prison do not open.
On the eve of the anniversary, Riccardo Noury, spokesman for Amnesty International Italia, recalled that "Patrick Zaki is reaching his eighteenth month of illegal, arbitrary detention, without trial and without the possibility of defending himself" and that the mobilization in his favor continues. And in the last few hours, activists fighting for him have stressed that "between a cold winter and a very hot summer, Patrick suffers in his cell with almost non-existent resources and inhumane conditions of detention".
The 30-year-old Egyptian student was arrested in controversial circumstances on February 7 last year and faces up to 25 years in prison, according to Amnesty. Pre-trial detention in Egypt can last two years, but if new charges arise during the investigation, it can be extended further, as demonstrated by the hunger strike recently initiated by the daughter of an Islamic preacher who has been in prison without trial for four years.
After an initial five-month phase of fortnightly renewals delayed by the Covid emergency, now Patrick's case is in that of 45-day extensions and the most recent renewal of the prison was ordered in the middle of last month: his prospect is therefore to spend the second half of August in his cell.
