(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 7 - The Lower House on Wednesday voted
almost unanimously to urge the government to grant Italian
citizenship to an Egyptian Bologna university researcher who has
been held in Cairo on sedition charges since February last year.
The Senate had already made a similar call.
The motion, which saw the abstention of the nationalist
opposition Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, commits the
government to "promptly initiating, via the competent
institutions, the necessary assessments in order to confer
Italian citizenship on Patrick George Zaki".
It also urged the government to keep monitoring Zaki's case and
his conditions of detention.
The government subsequently issued a favourable opinion on the
motion.
Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader Enrico Letta, whose
party was among the overwhelming majority backing the motion,
tweeted "the House has also approved the motion to grant
Patrick Zaki citizenship. Now that parliament has pronounced in
its entirety it is up to the government to do its part".
Vittorio Casa of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S)
said granting Zaki citizenship would not be "just a symbolic
act" and cited the case of Giulio Regeni, the Italian student
whose torture ad murder in 2016 has spawned a trial of four
Egyptian national security officers.
Maria Elena Boschi, caucus leader for the centrist Italia Viva
(IV) party, said "we have committed the government to fight this
battle for Patrick, unjustly detained in Egypt".
FdI MP Wanda Ferro said the motion would be "counter-productive.
if not deleterious, in the bid to secure (Zaki's) liberation".
She said Deputy Foreign Minister Marina Sereni had "voiced the
fear that this action may be read by Egypt as an act of force by
the Italian government, causing possible negative effects on
Zaki's release".
Zaki marked his 30th birthday in detention in Cairo on June 16,
spurring renewed calls from Italy for his release.
The Egyptian Bologna University postgraduate student has been
held in Egypt since February 7 last year on charges of
"disseminating false news" and "incitement to protest".
Zaki, a 29-year-old Coptic Christian, is pursuing an Erasmus
Mundus Master's Degree in Women and Gender Studies at the
University of Bologna.
He also conducts research and advocacy on gender issues and
human rights for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
(EIPR), a human rights organization based in Cairo.
Petitions for his release have been rejected on countless
occasion.
Zaki was arrested on arriving at Cairo International Airport
when he returned home from Bologna for a short family visit.
The Egyptian National Security Agency reportedly arrested Zaki,
interrogated him about his time in Italy and his human rights
work, and took him to an undisclosed location.
During interrogation, he was allegedly frequently threatened,
beaten on his stomach and back and tortured with electric
shocks.
The European Parliament, Amnesty International and Scholars At
Risk have been among the bodies calling for his release, along
with the Italian government. (ANSA).