ROME. The hours before the day of judgment are a miracle of balancing, full the agenda of commitments and empty your head. Patrick George Zaki thus waited for the verdict that the Mansura court will pronounce this morning, putting his freedom on paper or postponing, once again, the sentence on which it hangs: the most famous foreign student in Italy has watched the sun rise about his beloved Cairo for the fifty-fifth time since he was released from prison on 7 December last after 22 dark months, met people, read and wrote emails, posted on social media, ate. No sleep, there will be time when the hourglass stops pressing him. Meanwhile, before getting into the car with his family at the crack of dawn to reach Mansura, Zaki answers the questions from La Stampa on video and smiles. He generously allows himself as far as he can, it is almost he who reassures those who fear that the game may not close exactly on the spot and a couple of bureaucratic practices, that the trial is postponed again, that the sentence of 5 years in prison remains looming on the horizon. Come on, boy, come on. In the courtroom, with his lawyer, there will be two Italian and three foreign diplomats. Out there, between our cameras and the international media relaunching the American threat to block $ 130 million for the not-so-human rights regime, Egypt is a sphinx.
How was this Monday, January 31st, between the recommendations of father George Michel and the glowing cell phone?
“It passed in a flash. I have met my friends as I have done every day since I am free. I worked, I wrote. I went to the office, the headquarters of the NGO Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, to take stock with my lawyer. Over the weekend I had received a package of splendid tortellini from Bologna and we cooked a part there, together with colleagues. The other part was for my family: we ate looking forward. We all keep our fingers crossed. ‘
The most intense moment of these almost two months?
“Apart from when I re-embraced my life outside of prison, they were all equally intense. I have regained my time: albeit partially, I have recovered my normality. It was not easy and it was not at all obvious. A business meeting, a full immersion in Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s book, “You Have Not Yet Been Defeated”, football on TV and real football: I played with friends at least twice a week, I’m a pretty good midfielder “.
What do you expect the judges of Mansura to decide?
«I am optimistic, we are optimistic. Of course I’m also anxious. I know that there is the possibility of going back to the starting square, I know that there is a worst case scenario. I think about it. In recent weeks I have not received any signal that would give me directions. By now, however, there is little time left, departure at dawn from Cairo to arrive in Mansura in time and away. I will wait outside the courthouse with friends and family. My lawyer, Hoda Nasrallah, will represent me in the courtroom ».
What do your parents and your sister Marise say, the soul and the body of the campaign for your release?
“Of course my whole family is worried about me, scared. They support me but would also like me to be less “energetic” in my all-out commitment to human rights. And to say that, compared to the past, I am even less active, let’s say that I try to keep a low profile ».
One gets the impression that in the last month, day after day, from Facebook to Twitter, your positions have multiplied in favor of those, in Egypt and in other countries, who are in jail for their ideas or are discriminated against. for cultural, sexual, religious reasons. As if after prison I was more present in the political arena. Is that so?
“I’ve always been there, but now that I’m a familiar face you see me more. Commitment has been my life for at least ten years, since the revolution of 2011. Until the day before I was arrested, I fought on the side of human rights, dealing in particular with the MENA region but also with Afghanistan, with migrants adrift in the Mediterraneo, of women in the streets in Poland who question their self-awareness ».
Between the period of study in Italy and that as a recluse, you were away from Cairo for two years. In between there was Covid and much more. What city did you find to welcome you?
“I spent hours exploring the new premises in the streets I also knew. But it’s the Cairo of all time, the one I love, the traffic, the light, the street food, very good ».
What city do you imagine waiting for when you return to Bologna, where you have now become a celebrity?
“I would never have imagined such popularity. I am a normal person like my parents are, I was a student among thousands and now they know me all over Bologna and all over Italy. I spoke with Liliana Segre, the president Sergio Mattarella mentioned me twice, the diplomats of the Italian embassy in Egypt were more than present. I am experiencing all this affection from a distance and it is very intense, I carry inside the experience of prison but also the solidarity it has generated. Whatever happens I will always be grateful to Bologna, to Italy ».
You have just remotely passed the “Women’s Movements in Italian Modern History” exam with a brilliant 30 cum laude. Are you already projecting yourself to the next, perhaps in presence?
“Taking this exam was a turning point for me. An important sign of my return to normal. I was very worried about recovering the lost study, in recent months all my classmates have moved on, I was the last one, as soon as I was able to get back on my books I studied without respite ».
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