Zaki tomorrow in Milan, but with a scheduled flight and not a state one

Patrick Zaki, the Egyptian researcher released yesterday from prison after the pardon of the Egyptian president at Sisi, will arrive in Milan tomorrow at 8 on a scheduled flight, to then return to Bologna, the city where he studied, in a private car. No state flight or “catwalk” on his arrival. “Human rights defenders are independent people. They thank and show appreciation when something is done for them, which Patrick Zaki has largely already done, but they remain independent of governments, of any government” comments the Amnesty International spokesman Riccardo Noury, responding to the controversy opened yesterday by the Forza Italia senator Maurice Gasparriwho asked in the Chamber if Zaki “will find the time to also thank the Italian government to which he owes this result”.

As soon as he was released, the former student of the University of Bologna wrote on social media: «I sincerely thank the civil society organisations, parties, political forces and public figures who have asked for my release and that of all prisoners of opinion. I also thank the Government, the Italian Parliament, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister who supported me throughout the period of imprisonment and the trial just for having graduated from an Italian university, even though I am not an Italian citizen”.

He will stay in Bologna for just two weeks, then return to Egypt to get married in September. After the wedding she will be back in Italy to resume her studies and her life in Bologna.