Zaki thanks Italy after release

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 9 - Patrick Zaki has thanked Italy for the support given to him during his 22-month prison ordeal in his Egyptian homeland after being released on Wednesday.
    "Tutto bene (all well)," Zaki said in Italian after being released in Mansoura.
    Although Zaki, a 30-year-old Coptic doctoral researcher at Bologna University, has been released, the charges against him have not been dropped.
    The next hearing in his case is scheduled for February.
    "Thank you Italy," he said once he returned home with his mother, sister and girlfriend.
    "I hope to return soon".
    Zaki's lawyer said it is not clear if he can leave Egypt.
    The dean of Bologna University said his place was at the institution.
    Zaki was arrested on February 7, 2020, while returning to Egypt for a holiday and 19 months of detention were justified on charges of subversive propaganda made in 10 Facebook posts.
    The indictment instead was based on charges of "spreading fake news inside and outside the country" based on three articles written by Zaki, including one in 2019 on Christians in Egypt persecuted by ISIS and discriminated by fringes of Muslim society. (ANSA).