No meeting planned with Zaki says Tajani

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 22 - There are no plans to meet with the freed Egyptian researcher, human rights activist and Bologna University alumnus Patrick Zaki, Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Saturday.
    "Our concern was to protect a young man who was detained, sentenced, to give him back his freedom, since he is a young man who had studied and graduated in Italy," said Tajani.
    "The rest is his choice: how to come to Italy, how long to stay.
    We were interested in (securing) the young man's release, we were committed to this from the beginning," he added.
    On Friday Zaki said his return to Italy, scheduled for Saturday, had been delayed by a couple of days for reasons linked to the lifting of his travel ban following his presidential pardon on Wednesday.
    Separately, sources said he would be returning on a scheduled flight with an Egyptian airline having allegedly refused the offer of a special flight organised by the Italian government.
    The sources also reported that he had refused to meet representatives of Rome.
    Human rights watchdog Amnesty International Italia, which had campaigned tirelessly for Zaki's release ever since his arrest in Egypt in February 2020, described the decision as a "gesture of independence". (ANSA).