CAIRO, Dec 7 — An Egyptian court ordered the release today of researcher Patrick Zaki, whose detention in February last year sparked international condemnation, particularly in Italy where he had been studying, his family said.

"I’m jumping for joy!” his mother Hala Sobhi told AFP. "We’re now on our way to the police station in Mansoura,” a city in Egypt’s Nile Delta, where Zaki hails from.

Zaki still faces charges of "spreading false news”, "harming national security” and "incitement to overthrow the state”, among others. 

His trial has been postponed to February, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), a local NGO with which he worked.

In September, Zaki was referred to trial in front of an exceptional state security court for an article containing excerpts from his personal diary recounting the discrimination faced by the country’s Coptic Christian minority.

Coptic Christians make up about 10-15 per cent of the country’s population of more than 100 million.

Amnesty International previously said that Zaki had allegedly been tortured while being interrogated by national security officers, including using electric shocks and beating.

In June this year, his mother told AFP: "When I imagine his confinement, I feel like I’m suffocating... We thought he’d be jailed for a few weeks, but it has gone on for over a year”.

‘First goal achieved’

Zaki’s detention drew condemnation particularly in Italy where he had been studying and which recently held a trial in absentia over the killing of Italian PhD candidate Giulio Regeni in Egypt in 2016.

Regeni’s dead body was found bearing signs of torture, several days after he went missing on the fifth anniversary of the January 25 uprising. An Italian parliamentary commission report recently blamed his torture and death on Egypt’s state security apparatus.

Thousands in Italy had signed petitions calling for Zaki’s release, and the country’s senate in April voted to grant him Italian citizenship, allowing him to receive consular support.

Shortly after the court’s decision, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio tweeted: "First goal achieved: Patrick Zaki is no longer in prison... A dutiful thanks to our diplomatic corps.”

Egypt’s space for dissent has been severely restricted since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took office in 2014, with authorities particularly targeting EIPR in recent years.

Hossam Bahgat, who founded the rights group and was fined by a court last month for an "insulting” tweet, welcomed the news of Zaki’s release, writing "Thank God” on social media.

Three EIPR staff were jailed last year, sparking an international campaign supported by celebrities including Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson that resulted in their release. 

Several researchers have been jailed, including Ahmed Samir, a postgraduate student at the Central European University in Vienna, and Kholoud Amer, head of the translation unit at the Library of Alexandria.

Egypt ranks in the lowest group on the Global Public Policy Institute’s Academic Freedom Index.

Also today, five human rights groups called on French President Emmanuel Macron to pressure Egypt to release Egyptian-Palestinian activist Ramy Shaath.

Macron had previously raised his case in a live press conference with Sisi in Paris but Shaath, the son of veteran Palestinian politician Nabil Shaath, has remained in prison since July 2019. — AFP