Zaki says will 'continue to fight until back in Bologna'

(ANSAmed) - BOLOGNA, 29 LUG - Patrick Zaki, an Egyptian researcher who attended the University of Bologna and has been detained in a Cairo prison on sedition charges since February of last year, wrote a letter to his girlfriend that was delivered to his family during a prison visit and published Thursday on the "Patrick Libero" Facebook page.
    "I will fight until I return to study in Bologna," Zaki wrote.
    "My investigation has resumed, which could mean that one day I will go to court and have a trial, and this is much worse than I expected. After a year and a half, I thought I would have my freedom, but now it is clear that won't happen soon," he wrote.
    "In our wildest dreams we never could have imagined a situation like this. Since the time I left for Bologna we had made many plans, that you would come visit me to travel Italy together. It makes me extremely sad that this won't be able to happen. My situation is getting worse day by day".
    Zaki has been in pre-trial custody in prison for 18 months with very few hearings, and has been subjected to torture, according to his attorneys.
    Egyptian authorities accused him of subversive propaganda and instigation to terrorism, which could land him in prison for 25 years, based in particular on a dozen or so Facebook posts posted to an account that Patrick said is not authentic.
    His physical and psychological health, in the meantime, has become alarming, as Amnesty International and other NGOs have denounced on numerous occasions. (ANSAmed).