The seventh hearing of the trial against Patrick Zak
i is held this morning in Mansura, on the Nile delta,
in which the student of the University of Bologna, after 22 months spent in custody until last December.
he faces another five years in prison for spreading false news.
The forecasts of the eve indicated
a long update: of "two or three months
", according to a judicial source which argued that the postponement would serve to give time to mature "a political decision that completely freezes the trial and grants Patrick his total freedom ".
His main lawyer, Hoda Nasrallah, did not want to make statements and
Patrick himself recently said he did not expect "anything" from today's hearing
even though in theory the single judge of Mansura could acquit him, cancel his release or postpone him " who knows when ".
The appointment is as always in front of the new wing of the old Palace of Justice of Mansura, the birthplace of Patrick where a local State Security Court operates for minor (or emergency) crimes.
The court has been trying him since September 14 last year for an article on controversial discrimination against the Christian minority in Egypt, openly persecuted by ISIS.
Also for this morning
it is foreseeable the presence in Mansura of a delegation of foreign diplomats who, on the impulse of Italy, follow all the hearings
as part of a European monitoring program of processes relevant to the respect of human rights.
Patrick's hearing, as already happened in the previous six occasions, should be inserted in a session of different trials: a circumstance that does not allow to predict exactly what time it begins and ends.