CAIRO – 20 July 2023: Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni thanked President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for pardoning Egyptian researcher Patrick Zaki, who was arrested in February 2020 during a visit to Cairo when he was a graduate at the University of Bologna in Italy.
Patrick Zaki “today received a pardon from the President of the Egyptian Republic. I want to thank President Al-Sisi for this very important gesture” Meloni was quoted by Agenzia Nova saying in a video message on Wednesday.
Meloni added that Zaki will return to Italy.
“I wish him, from the bottom of my heart, a life of serenity and success,” she stated.
In reference to her first meeting with Sisi in November, Meloni said: “Since our first meeting, last November, I have never stopped asking the question, I have always found attention and availability on your part.”
“I want to thank the intelligence and diplomats, both Italian and Egyptian, who have never stopped working for the desired solution in recent months,” she added.
Ti aspettiamo in Italia, #PatrickZaki pic.twitter.com/SDCV2V1ZOF
— Giorgia Meloni (@GiorgiaMeloni) July 19, 2023
Earlier today, Sisi pardoned a number of convicts, including Zaki and lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer, who was arrested in 2019.
The pardons come a day after an Egyptian court handed Zaki a three-year prison sentence over spreading false information in an article about alleged discrimination of Egypt's Copts.
President Sisi has pardoned many convicts and also released over 1,000 pretrial detainees, especially since the launch of the National Dialogue and the reactivation of the Presidential Pardon Committee in April 2022.
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