The Egyptian authorities continue to infringe individuals’ rights to freedom of assembly and freedom of expression by repressing and punishing any perceived form of dissent. One of the consequences is the imprisonment and prolonged pre-trial detention of human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, politicians, and social media influencers.
This story starts on 7 February 2019, when security forces arbitrarily arrested the Egyptian student Patrick Zaki, a human rights researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), upon his arrival in Cairo from Italy. February 2021 marked the one-year anniversary since his arrest and detention on charges including “disseminating false news” and “inciting to protest”.
The student moved to Italy in 2019, where he was attending a master’s programme in gender studies at the University of Bologna. The warrant of his arrest dates back to September 2019, which his lawyers reported Zaki was unaware of.
According to the EIPR, after his arrival in Cairo, Zaki was arrested and taken to a National Security Investigations facility. As confirmed by one of his lawyers, Samuel Thabet, after the arrest, the researcher disappeared for 24 hours, where he was subjected to torture. Only the day after, 8 February 2020, did the police formalise his arrest.
Zaki has been in Tora prison waiting for trial after several renewals of custody, with charges ranging from subversive propaganda to terrorism based on a social media account that the student confirms is not his. Since the latest decision to further extend his pre-trial detention, representative of Amnesty International Italy Riccardo Noury considers the Egyptian authorities’ actions to be inappropriate, as “they are using all the time required by the law to keep an innocent person in prison”.
This case recalls what happened four years ago to Giulio Regeni, a young Italian researcher working for the American University in Cairo. Regeni was found dead in the middle of the street, in the desert between Cairo and Alexandria. Regeni’s body was completely disfigured, his skin was pockmarked by cigarette burns, and the bones of his shoulders and feet were shattered. Despite being tortured and killed, the Italian authorities are still unable to pressure the Egyptian institutions to hold the perpetrators accountable. Italy is living the same nightmare all over again with Zaki.
Despite the small effort of the European Parliament in approving a resolution to request an inquiry to investigate the various violations of human rights in Egypt, pressuring the Egyptian authorities to collaborate with Italy, nothing is actually moving forward. [in Italian] On the other side, the Egyptian media has been perpetrating scathing public criticisms of Zaki, describing him as a terrorist and a homosexual, which is a crime in Egypt.
Recently, Ahmed Samer, an Egyptian student at the Central European University of Vienna, was sentenced to four years in prison for spreading fake news by an Egyptian tribunal. Even in this case, there has been no reaction from the European states, including Austria and Italy, nor from the EU institutions.
The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio, announced that Italy should adopt a “different” strategy with Zaki’s case, asking NGOs and civil society to lower their voices in order to promote cooperation from the Egyptian authorities. According to Minister Di Maio, the initiatives adopted to support Zaki by civil society, NGOs, and universities are detrimental and might disincentivise the Egyptian authorities from cooperating. [in Italian]
The response of Amnesty International Italy representative Riccardo Noury contradicts the benevolent approach adopted by the Italian authorities, which has not obtained any positive outcome neither for Zaki’s case nor Regeni’s. Furthermore, Noury highlights that Egypt already perceives Italy as inconsistent and is thus unlikely to work with the state.
Italy’s work behind the scenes to soften Egypt and to work with authorities to free Zaki is not showing results unfortunately. The nation’s strategies have clearly not been effective, as Zaki remains in pre-trial detention and Samer was just convicted to four years in an Egyptian prison. For this reason, it is crucial for the EU to actively step in and act upon this situation—and not via new, short-lived measures, but rather by adopting a firm decision with consequences that will persuade Egyptian cooperation. For example, the EU could consider a similar approach to the recent imposition of targeted economic sanctions on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko after the forced landing of a Ryanair flight to arrest Roman Protasevich.
While Zaki remains in pre-trial detention, more and more cities in Italy are naming him an honorary citizen in order to spread awareness of his circumstances.
Orsola holds an LLB Bachelor in Law at Lancaster University (UK). She is currently concluding her Advanced LLM in International and European Human Rights Law at Leiden University (Netherlands). Her goal is to work in the human rights policy and research field, in particular regarding Immigration Law and Indigenous Peoples' Rights in Latin America.