The Vice President of the European Parliament, Fabio Massimo Castaldo, announced that the Italian “Five Stars” movement calls for “the intervention of the European Union with a strong stance towards Egypt that also assesses the use of sanctions against Cairo.”
The official in the movement also demanded that the aim of these moves is to release the researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, and the graduate student at the University of Bologna, Patrick Zaki.
He added in a press statement on Monday: “A year has passed since Patrick Zaki was detained, and he is still in detention awaiting the start of the trial, imprisoned in a cell in Tora high-security prison in Cairo.”
“Once again, a few days ago, his pretrial detention was renewed without legal justification,” Castaldo said. “Our core values are at stake, and the European Union cannot and should not stand idly by.”
The Egyptian authorities had arrested Zaki in February of last year at Cairo Airport from Italy and decided to detain him in pretrial detention pending investigations after he was accused of “spreading false news and data, managing and using an online account with the purpose of disturbing public order and harming national security.” Accusations denied by Zaki and his lawyers.
Source: Italian agency “Aki”
