Issued on: 09/02/2020
Rome (AFP)
Italy on Sunday called on Egypt to release a young Egyptian researcher and activist based at Bologna University, saying it had reason to believe the security forces had tortured him.
The incident has revived painful memories of the 2016 disappearance and murder of an Italian researcher in Cairo, a case for which which the Italian authorities are still seeking answers.
Patrick Zaky, 27, a graduate student at Bologna University in northern Italy, was detained late on Friday as he arrived to visit his family.
He was held on a warrant issued in September after he left to pursue his studies, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a prominent rights organisation where he is a researcher.
They said he had been charged with "harming national security" and "broadcasting false news" -- and that he had been beaten and electrocuted by security forces.
In a statement Sunday, Peppe De Christofaro, Under-Secretary for Education, expressed "great concern" for Zaky.
He had a "well-founded fear that the young Egyptian researcher... is currently suffering arbitrary and unjustified detention and that he is a new victim of violence and abuse from the Egyptian security forces", he said.
He called for other European Union states to join Italy in pressing Egypt to release him.
Everything had to be done to protect Zaky's safety and "avoid a repetition of unacceptable scenes of torture", he said.
- The Regeni affair -
Italy's reaction is in part informed by the January 2016 disappearance of 28-year-old Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni in Cairo, where he was carrying out research on Egyptian trades unions.
His badly mutilated body was found in a suburb of the city a few days later, bearing the marks of torture.
Bologna University, where Zaky received a grant to study for a Masters degree, has already set up a crisis cell to help him. Students there are preparing a demonstration for Sunday evening to call for his release.
"We won't allow another Regeni case," organisers told Italian news agency Ansa. "We won't leave Patrick alone."
Last month, rights group Amnesty International organised a demonstration in the northern city of Turin to mark the fourth anniversary of Regeni's disappearance.
Although the Egyptian authorities have repeatedly denied any involvement in his death, the affair has soured relations between the two countries.
On Saturday, Zaky made an appearance before an Egyptian prosecutor in his home town of Mansoura, in the north of the country, said judicial and security sources.
He faces charges of "incitement to protest without a permit", "inciting to overthrow the state", "running a social media account intent on... harming national security", "broadcasting false news" and "promoting terrorist acts", the sources told AFP.
He will held for 15 days for questioning.
Since he led the 2013 military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has overseen a crackdown against Islamists and secular critics.
It has targeted prominent dissidents, academics, activists, journalists and lawyers.
Egyptian researcher faces charges of 'harming national security'
Since President Sisi led military takeover in 2013, his crackdown against critics has targeted dissidents, academics, activists, journalists and lawyers
Patrick Zaky is "at risk of prolonged detention and torture," according to Amnesty International spokesman in Italy (Twitter)
By MEE and agencies Published date: 8 February 2020 o
An Egyptian researcher and activist was arrested upon his arrival from Italy and charged with "harming national security" and with "broadcasting false news," lawyers and his employer said on Saturday.
Patrick Zaky, who is a graduate student at Bologna University, was detained at Cairo airport late on Friday as he arrived to visit his family, AFP reported.
He was held on a warrant that had been issued in September after he left to pursue his studies, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a prominent rights organisation where he is a researcher. The NGO said he was questioned about his research and activism.
Since President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi led a military takeover in 2013, a crackdown against critics has targeted prominent dissidents, academics, activists, journalists and lawyers.
'Be transparent about his whereabouts': US Senator tells Egypt to reveal location of Mostafa al-NaggarRead More »
Zaky appeared before the public prosecutor on Saturday in his hometown of Mansoura, 130km north of Cairo in the Delta region, security and judicial sources said.
Zaky faces charges of "incitement to protest without a permit," "inciting to overthrow the state," "running a social media account intent on... harming national security" and "broadcasting false news," as well as "promoting terrorist acts," they told AFP.
He will be held in custody for 15 days for further questioning.
Lawyers from two other rights groups in Egypt confirmed the list of charges.
EIPR said Zaky had been beaten and electrocuted by security forces while in custody overnight, claims that AFP could not verify.
The group called for his immediate release.
Riccardo Noury, Amnesty International's spokesman in Italy, wrote on Twitter on Saturday that the researcher is "at risk of prolonged detention and torture".
Zaky is one of a number of human rights defenders to be arrested or who have died in custody since 2013. Sisi's government has overseen a broad crackdown against dissent, with as many as 60,000 people jailed.
On Friday, US Republican Senator Marco Rubio called on the Egyptian government to disclose the location of Mostafa al-Naggar, a prominent activist and former politician who has been missing for more than 16 months.
Last month, an American imprisoned in Egypt for more than six years on what he insisted were false charges died after a long hunger strike, the State Department said. Moustafa Kassem, a dual Egyptian-American citizen, was arrested in Cairo in August 2013 after the military coup that brought Sisi to power.
US confirms 'avoidable' death of American held in Egyptian prison
Moustafa Kassem, who was arrested in 2013 after the overthrow of Egypt's first democratically elected president, had protested his innocence
Egyptian security forces are deployed near Cairo's Tora prison (File: AFP)
By
MEE staff Published date: 14 January 2020
An American imprisoned in Egypt for more than six years on what he insisted were false charges, died on Monday after a long hunger strike, the State Department has said.
Moustafa Kassem, 64, a dual Egyptian-American citizen, was arrested in Cairo in August 2013 following a military coup that brought Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to power.
Kassem had insisted he had no links to opposition politics and had been wrongfully detained by Egyptian soldiers when he happened to be at a shopping centre near Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya square.
The dispersal of a sit-in at Cairo's Rabaa square on 14 August 2013 saw soldiers and police shoot dead more than 800 protesters in a matter of hours, and arrest thousands.
The bloody crackdown came weeks after the overthrow of Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi.
Human Rights Watch concluded that the killings "likely amounted to crimes against humanity" and "were part of a policy to attack unarmed persons on political grounds."
'His death in custody was needless, tragic and avoidable,'
- David Schenker, Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs
After spending more than five years in pretrial detention, where he said his diabetes and a heart ailment went largely untreated, Kassem was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in jail in a mass trial involving hundreds of defendants.
Soon after that, Kassem went on the first of several hunger strikes, refusing solid food for months on end to protest what he called his unjust imprisonment.
He wrote letters to both US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, asking them to secure his freedom and not make his wife a "widow".
"I am deeply saddened to learn today the death of US citizen Moustafa Kassem who'd been imprisoned in Egypt," Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker told a State Department briefing on Monday.
"His death in custody was needless, tragic and avoidable," he added.
Kassem's brother-in-law Mustafa Ahmed, had previously described conditions at the maximum security Tora prison, where he was kept, as dire.
"The cells are filthy, infested with insects, rodents and snakes," he wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times last year.
"They have no ventilation, sun or light. Kassem and the other prisoners have no access to clean water, a bed, a chair or any books."
Trump's 'favourite dictator'
Since 2013, Sisi's government has overseen a broad crackdown against dissent, with as many as 60,000 people jailed.
While members of the Muslim Brotherhood - to which President Morsi belonged - were the main target, secular and left-wing activists have also been imprisoned.
Morsi died in jail last June, after enduring almost six years in solitary confinement.
How the death of a president shed light on Egypt's brutal dictatorshipRead More »
A 2018 report by members of the UK Parliament had warned that the "cruel, inhuman and degrading" conditions of Morsi's detention, including lack of medical care, may lead to his death.
Sisi won a second term in March 2018, in what critics called a "sham" election. He secured more than 97 percent of the vote.
The presidential elections featured only one other candidate - Moussa Mustafa Moussa - an ardent Sisi supporter who once formed a campaign group called: "Supporters of President Sisi's nomination for a second term."
Egypt is the second-biggest recipient of US military aid after Israel, receiving $1.3 billion every year.
Trump has repeatedly heaped praise on the Egyptian leader, even calling him "my favourite dictator".
Moustafa Kassem, 64, a dual Egyptian-American citizen, was arrested in Cairo in August 2013 following a military coup that brought Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to power.
Kassem had insisted he had no links to opposition politics and had been wrongfully detained by Egyptian soldiers when he happened to be at a shopping centre near Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya square.
The dispersal of a sit-in at Cairo's Rabaa square on 14 August 2013 saw soldiers and police shoot dead more than 800 protesters in a matter of hours, and arrest thousands.
The bloody crackdown came weeks after the overthrow of Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi.
Human Rights Watch concluded that the killings "likely amounted to crimes against humanity" and "were part of a policy to attack unarmed persons on political grounds."
'His death in custody was needless, tragic and avoidable,'
- David Schenker, Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs
After spending more than five years in pretrial detention, where he said his diabetes and a heart ailment went largely untreated, Kassem was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in jail in a mass trial involving hundreds of defendants.
Soon after that, Kassem went on the first of several hunger strikes, refusing solid food for months on end to protest what he called his unjust imprisonment.
He wrote letters to both US President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, asking them to secure his freedom and not make his wife a "widow".
"I am deeply saddened to learn today the death of US citizen Moustafa Kassem who'd been imprisoned in Egypt," Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker told a State Department briefing on Monday.
"His death in custody was needless, tragic and avoidable," he added.
Kassem's brother-in-law Mustafa Ahmed, had previously described conditions at the maximum security Tora prison, where he was kept, as dire.
"The cells are filthy, infested with insects, rodents and snakes," he wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times last year.
"They have no ventilation, sun or light. Kassem and the other prisoners have no access to clean water, a bed, a chair or any books."
Trump's 'favourite dictator'
Since 2013, Sisi's government has overseen a broad crackdown against dissent, with as many as 60,000 people jailed.
While members of the Muslim Brotherhood - to which President Morsi belonged - were the main target, secular and left-wing activists have also been imprisoned.
Morsi died in jail last June, after enduring almost six years in solitary confinement.
How the death of a president shed light on Egypt's brutal dictatorshipRead More »
A 2018 report by members of the UK Parliament had warned that the "cruel, inhuman and degrading" conditions of Morsi's detention, including lack of medical care, may lead to his death.
Sisi won a second term in March 2018, in what critics called a "sham" election. He secured more than 97 percent of the vote.
The presidential elections featured only one other candidate - Moussa Mustafa Moussa - an ardent Sisi supporter who once formed a campaign group called: "Supporters of President Sisi's nomination for a second term."
Egypt is the second-biggest recipient of US military aid after Israel, receiving $1.3 billion every year.
Trump has repeatedly heaped praise on the Egyptian leader, even calling him "my favourite dictator".
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