By POMED –
After the Third Circuit Court renewed Patrick George Zaki’s detention order on April 5, his defense said that the judge was unqualified to manage Zaki’s detention hearings because he has already ruled on Zaki’s detention five other times, in violation of judicial procedures.
- Despite the defense team’s request for Zaki’s hearing to be moved to a different court, the Third Circuit renewed his detention for another 45 days.
- The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) condemned the ruling and said that the judge had made his own views about Zaki clear, “despite the lack of evidence and the absence of any justification for pretrial detention.”
- EIPR called for Zaki’s release and exoneration, explaining, “We stand incapable of understanding the reasons for this obstinacy against an Egyptian young man who is prevented from completing his studies or resuming his social life without providing any reliable evidence or justification for the continuation of his pretrial detention throughout this period.”
- Zaki, who is a graduate student at the University of Bologna and was working as a researcher at EIPR at the time of his arrest, has been detained since February 2020, when he was arrested on terrorism related charges widely considered bogus. His research focuses on gender and sexuality.
_________________________________________________
Photo Credit: EIPR
Recommended Posts
