After an ordeal that lasted three and a half years , Patrick Zaki returned to Italy.
The Egyptian activist arrived in the afternoon on board an EgyptAir Boeing 737 that took off from Cairo and landed at Milan Malpensa airport.
"It's the most important day of my life, see you in Bologna," he told reporters as soon as he touched Italian soil.
Waiting for him was his fiancée Reny Iskander, his sister Marise, the rector of the University of Bologna Giovanni Molari and professor Rita Monticelli, who got on a van with him to take him to Bologna where he received the parchment of the degree he obtained remotely on 5 July.
«I'm finally here, it's a dream come true after all these years. There are no words that can describe how I feel – said the student -. Bologna is my second home: I have enjoyed a lot of support, I have seen this support in three years and it is also seen in Cairo. I thank the Italian and Egyptian authorities, the NGOs, civil society, the heads of the Italian state up to the Prime Minister. I want to resume my university career and as a human rights defender. I'll go to Cairo for a few days, but then I'll go back to Bologna. Mine was a success story but in Egypt there are still hundreds of people in prison, we are asking for their release. They deserve a presidential pardon like me." Then the appeal: "Justice for Giulio Regeni".
«Welcome back Patrick, it's nice to have you back here, to hug you again after a few years and to see your image in our rooms - the words of the rector Molari, welcoming him -. You are finally here in the flesh, after private phone calls, online meetings. It's good to have you here with us in person. The university is a place of pluralism and freedom, a place above parties. They have been three difficult years, three dramatic years. Now it's party time. From you we learned to resist».
(Unioneonline/D)
