Patrick Zaki
MANSURA - Tuesday's hearing of the trial against Patrick Zaki has been adjourned to February 28, Zaki said, addressing reporters in front of the tribunal of Mansura. "Today, prosecutors started to present their arguments and then my legal team started to present its own", said the Egyptian student of the University of Bologna, answering a question on what happened on Tuesday, during the eighth hearing of the trial.
"They stopped us while we were presenting our documents and our arguments", added Zaki. "They withdrew to deliberate" in chambers and "proposed to make us complete the documents we want to present to the court", he also said, referring to February 28. "This is everything that happened today", he stressed, noting that after the break "we did not resume our arguments. We shall see. They proposed to resume to discuss the evidence".
"We had with us the evidence to confirm the authenticity of everything published in the article" under discussion and thus "we were surprised that the hearing was postponed to February 28 to present the defense's acts" said the head of Zaki's legal team, Hoda Nasrallah, leaving the hearing.
"We waited for a long time for the judges to return" from chambers and "we thought we could continue our session of defense, also exposing our oral arguments", the lawyer continued. She stressed that, based on today's decision, in three months "we will not complete" the oral hearing but "we will only present the acts of the defense".
"I hope this nightmare will end soon and that I will be able to return to Italy to study normally and have the possibility of working on my personal recovery", wrote Zaki on Facebook after the hearing. The 31-year-old researcher in gender studies risks up to five years in jail for allegedly spreading fake news.
Although free, after 22 months of pre-trial custody, he is not allowed to leave Egypt.
