The tenth hearing of the trial against Patrick Zaki, the Egyptian student at the University of Bologna who - although at large - always risks another five years in prison for the content of one of his articles will be held today in Mansura. His main lawyer, Hoda Nasrallah, as well as Patrick himself after the previous hearing on February 28, did not rule out that tomorrow there could be a sentence.
"We hope," the lawyer limited herself to answering an ANSA question on the possibility of a verdict. Formally, the adjournment to May 9 had been arranged only "to deliver the defense papers", revealed the researcher in gender studies at the Alma Mater of Bologna. Being a single judge, there is always the possibility of a sentence: "Maybe they will pronounce the final verdict, they could do it", Patrick recalled after the hearing in which his lawyers, for the first time since the beginning of the trial in September 2021, had been able to present their defense in an organic way.
What Amnesty International calls Patrick's judicial "nightmare" began with his arrest on 7-8 February 2020 and has lasted for three years and three months, 22 of which he spent in prison. The accusation is based on an article written by the researcher in 2019 about an ISIS attack and two cases of alleged discrimination against Copts, the Christians of Egypt.
During the pre-trial period, between February 2020 and September 2021, according to what can be reconstructed from media information, Patrick had suffered the trickle of 18 hearings in which extensions of his pre-trial detention passed almost entirely in the Tora prison in Cairo were decided: the renewals, as required by law, in the first five months were 15 days each and then 45. Especially during the first period of the pandemic, in spring 2020 (but on two occasions also in June and November), his judicial story was characterized by nine postponements of the hearings for the renewal of pre-trial detention. (ANSA).