Zaki: sister, thank you all, keep us in your thoughts

"I want to thank everyone with all my heart. I ask you to always keep us in your thoughts, in your hearts and in your prayers".

This is the message that Marise, sister of Patrick George Zaki sent to the 12-hour 'Voices for Patrick' marathon organized by Amnesty International, Mei (Meeting of independent labels) and Voices for freedom on February 8, which is underway in streaming.

The initiative today exactly one year after the formalization of the arrest in Egypt of the 29-year-old student of the University of Bologna.

The Voci X Patrick marathon, the live one

Online event also of the University of Bologna

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"Patrick, never stop fighting and hoping. We won't stop until you come back with us", "at each hearing we hope you can go out, every day I pass in front of your mural: know that the whole University and the whole city is by your side ".

These are passages of letters that the students of the University of Bologna have addressed to Patrick George Zaki.

The students themselves read them during the online event, organized by the Bolognese university, to ask for the release of the Egyptian student and to re-launch the appeal for the conferral of Italian citizenship.

"I have never known you, Patrick - writes another student - I saw your beauty in the eyes of your classmates and your teachers. My voice is one among a thousand that wishes you the happiness and freedom that you are due ".

Mayors also participated in the online event, while the artist Gianluca Costantini drew words and graphic motifs to ideally unite students and friends with the researcher.

"The cities that are here today, represented by their mayors, responded to Patrick's choice of Italy as a place of knowledge. Their presence prompts us to ask you, President Mattarella, to listen to the voices of students, teachers, staff of universities, citizens and mayors who ask for justice and freedom for Patrick in unison.

, to a country that loves him and has adopted his strength, courage and enthusiasm for studying ".

Thus the rector of the University of Bologna

who opened the online event dedicated to Patrick George Zaki, the researcher of the Alma Mater Studiorum who has been detained in Egypt for a year.

The mayors of various cities also participated in the video link.

"Patrick is no longer just a citizen of the Alma Mater and of Bologna - he adds - he is a young man whom our country recognizes as an example of moral and civil commitment. Patrick is now an honorary citizen of countless cities, because it is a testimony to how fundamental desire for knowledge and love for that critical spirit which is the true engine of change and the demolition of blind absolutisms ".

The student, continues the rector, "has the right to return free, to his life and his loved ones. We will not leave you alone, Patrick. Human, cultural and civil rights today more than ever demand your release and that of all students. who in the world are deprived of their freedom of thought ".

"The community of Bologna, that of Emilia-Romagna, that of this country is asking and demanding the release of Patrick Zaki. Starting with the President of the Republic Mattarella, particular attention is requested and is asked to adhere to the request for citizenship Italian for extraordinary matters ".

Thus the president of the Emilia-Romagna Region

in a passage of his speech at the online event of the University of Bologna to ask for the release of the Egyptian researcher Patrick George Zaki.

"I have heard it objected that it would be an interference by this country in the private affairs of another sovereign state - adds Bonaccini - I answer like this: when it comes to human rights there is no boundary. It happens to Patrick today, but it could, in the future, happen to each of us. Democracy is a good that must be preserved, it must be strengthened every day with values ​​and ideals ".

The president assures that "the Region and the Legislative Assembly are ready to deploy all possible tools alongside initiatives to ask the Government and the country to do everything they can because we want to see Patrick Zaki free".

"Today a good economy and healthy economic development must necessarily pass from putting the defense of human rights and the dignity of people first. This is why the idea of ​​addressing the President of the Republic and through him to the new Government, it means that we are asking for Italian citizenship for Patrick knowing that this coincides, in our legal system, with European citizenship. This will allow all the consequent responsibilities to be assumed, even at the European level ".

Thus the mayor of Bologna

in a passage of his speech at the online event, organized by the University of Bologna.

"There are too many human rights denied, the freedom of opinion denied that Patrick's unjust detention makes evident - he adds - a collective change of pace in our Europe is needed, starting with the Italian Government, which I hope will be formed soon because we need all to convince us that there is a need for a new generation of diplomatic initiatives that do not subordinate human rights to economic development and relations with other states ".