Bologna rejoices at Zaki pardon and awaits his return

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 19 - The news of Patrick Zaki's presidential pardon in Egypt is a "great joy for Bologna", mayor Matteo Lepore said on Wednesday.
    "It is a great joy for Bologna, I hope it means embracing him soon and having him back in the city," said Lepore of the Bologna University alumnus who was sentenced to three years in prison for allegedly spreading fake news by a Mansoura court on Tuesday before being pardoned.
    The mayor also thanked "all the activists who have worked for Patrick Zaki: Amnesty, the rector, Professor Rita Monticelli, the successive governments and also this last government, which has dialogued with Egypt".
    "I will stop here for now; we are waiting for more news and we hope that Patrick can leave the country so we can have him here, I want to repeat that it is a great joy for Bologna," he concluded.
    Bologna university rector Giovanni Molari said the news of the presidential pardon "fills us with joy".
    "After yesterday's anguish, it is a moment of unexpected relief and great happiness for the entire Alma Mater. We hope this is the end of more than three years of waiting and disappointed hopes," he added.
    "We are waiting to know the details, but we are confident that the moment we have been waiting for for so long will soon arrive: to welcome Patrick back to Bologna, to his university, and to give him a big graduation party that will ideally be a party for the whole city and the whole country," Molari said.
    Earlier this month Zaki obtained a masters degree in women's and gender studies from Bologna University with the maximum grade of 110 with distinction, defending his thesis via video link after the authorities in his homeland refused permission for him to present it in person.
    He was arrested at Cairo airport in February 2020 and held in pre-trial detention for 22 months until December 2021, when he was released but put on trial on separate charges and banned from leaving the country.
    Bologna Archbishop Cardinal Matteo Zuppi also expressed his joy "for the announced forthcoming release of the young man".
    Zuppi, who is currently visiting Washington as the Pope's envoy on Ukraine, said he hoped to be able to meet Zaki soon "to rejoice with him and share faith and hope". (ANSA).