At least for today, due to bureaucratic delays in Cairo, it will not be possible to know for how many days the custody in prison of
Patrick Zaki
has been renewed
. But, although there is still no official notification, the risk for the Egyptian student of the University of Bologna is that it is another 45 days in prison. One of its lawyers, Hoda Nasrallah, told ANSA by telephone, answering the question whether she had gone to the Prosecutor's Office this morning to receive notification of the outcome of the hearing held yesterday.
"Not today because the clerks are not always there to communicate the decision," the lawyer said.
"But given that he is not released, it means that it is the usual routine: 45 days are expected", she added, however, specifying that "she had not been formally informed".
Already yesterday evening, after the hearing, Nasrallah had predicted that the 30-year-old's pre-trial detention in the Tora prison in Cairo would be renewed but, in the absence of a formalization, he had not been able to indicate the number of days.
The lawyer expected a notification between today and tomorrow.
After a first five-month phase of fortnightly renewals delayed by the Covid emergency, for over a year Patrick's case has been in that of 45-day extensions.
The researcher was arrested on February 7, 2020, that is more than 18 months ago, but the pre-trial detention in Egypt can last two years with the possibility of extensions if, during the investigation, new elements of accusation emerge. If he goes to trial, Patrick faces up to 25 years in prison, according to Amnesty International. The charges against him are based on ten posts from a Facebook account that his lawyers consider fake but which have configured, among other things, the "dissemination of false news", "incitement to protest" and "incitement to violence. and terrorist crimes ". The mobilization of politics and civil society in his favor in Italy has institutionally culminated in a request from the Chamber of Deputies to the Government to provide him with Italian citizenship.