2023-07-21 15:47:06
Time.news- “The best feeling is freedom. Tomorrow morning at Bologna to crown the long-awaited dream”. So Patrick Zaki in a tweet he confirms his arrival tomorrow under the Two Towers. The researcher, after a first stop in Milan, will go to Bologna where he is expected for a big party.
The Egyptian researcher’s professor, Rita Monticelli, he explained to Time.news that “Zaki himself, at the moment, doesn’t know the exact date, but he counts on being here for the weekend”. Patrick himself declared yesterday, as he left the Italian embassy in Cairo where he requested a visa to leave: “I’m planning to be in Bologna on Saturday morning arriving in Milan: from Milan I will move to Bologna”.
Meanwhile, from Bologna airport, they don’t rule out any eventuality on Zaki’s itinerary, not even that he can fly to Milan and then take a train to Bologna. The Municipality is at work preparing the party for his arrival in Piazza Maggiore, but in the dark, it would seem, having not yet had the opportunity – filters through Palazzo D’Accursio – to make arrangements with the Egyptian researcher.
However, Mayor Matteo Lepore is waiting for Zaki with open arms: “I received Patrick’s photo as soon as he left the police station – he commented -. We are happy: we know that he will soon arrive in Italy, we await him in Bologna as soon as possible”
The mayor announced that the researcher will be given the honorary citizenship that the City Council has already approved two years ago. “As soon as we get in touch with him – he explained – we will agree on what kind of party he wants to have in our city which will embrace him again after so many months of battle to be able to see him free”.
“We are waiting for him tomorrow in Piazza Maggiore to welcome him back to the city as he really deserves and as only Bologna can do” declared the deputy mayor this morning Emily Clancy in the Question time of the Bologna City Council.
“Patrick is expected to return tomorrow – he added – and, as Mayor Matteo Lepore declared, Bologna will organize a return party for him in the presence of all the people who have supported his release and release over the years. Together we will remove the banner from Palazzo D’Accursio that invokes his freedom and I think it will be a very emotionally touching moment for the whole city. His city, which has been close to him in recent years, which will continue to do so and in which we hope he will come back to life”.
Once he arrives in the capital of Emilia, the cardinal and archbishop of Bologna, as well as president of the CEI, also expressed his desire to meet Zaki, Matthew Maria Zuppi who was immediately interested in his story and declared: “I’ll wait for him in Bologna”.
Tajani: no bartering. Let’s work on the truth about Regeni
“There has never been any bartering. We have always worked to free Zaki. Obviously it is always an Egyptian decision, as he is an Egyptian citizen. Then we have always continued to work to get the truth about Regeni. We brought home one result, now we’re working to bring home the second”. Antonio Tajani who, on the sidelines of an initiative in Salerno, explains: “We have always had great availability from the president Al Sisi. To those who said we were fooled, we demonstrated that the seriousness of the government, the seriousness of diplomacy, the seriousness of intelligence have brought home positive results, just as we freed Alessia Piperno from the prisons of the pasdaran in Iran”. “So without making a fuss, without threats, without shouting, without yelling, without holding demonstrations, we can achieve important results”, underlines the Deputy Prime Minister FI, and Foreign Minister.
“For Regeni – he points out again – we are continuing to ask to give us all the information necessary for the trial”.
Zaki’s words after the release
“My life starts again from here. This time for real. In a definitive way. Without the nightmare of the trial and the travel ban that have followed me everywhere in this period”: said Patrick Zaki after release in Egypt to Republic.
“I dream of Bologna, I dream of Piazza Maggiore, I dream of walking in the streets that I have missed so much, I dream of seeing my university again, my colleagues and all the people who have supported me in recent months and who are so many”, he added the 32-year-old Egyptian who will return to Italy in the next few days.
“One of the first things I’ll do when I get back is to buy a season ticket to follow Bologna football at the Dall’Ara stadium: next season I want to be there to cheer on my favorite team”, he assured.
“I really never expected things to go so fast, for this pardon to arrive”, said Zaki, “but after all there are many things I didn’t expect: the first is that they would arrest me in court. I was afraid, it would be stupid to deny it. Even if you are an activist and you know that for this you run risks the idea of going back to prison, to be confined again for months in a cell was terrifying”.
Meloni – Al Sisi phone call
On Thursday evening, a note from Palazzo Chigi announced that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had a telephone conversation with the President of Egypt Al Sisi, in particular to thank him for the pardon granted to Patrick Zaki, a gesture of great importance that was much appreciated in Italy“.
“The phone call was also an opportunity to explore some bilateral issues and to make a point in view of Sunday’s Conference on Development and Migration in Rome where Egypt will be represented by Prime Minister Madbouly. Both leaders expressed the wish to be able to meet soon”, adds Palazzo Chigi.
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