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Graduate student arrested in Egypt: EUA calls for immediate release


14 February 2020

The University of Bologna, an EUA member, has launched a powerful appeal to the European Union and its member states to take prompt action in the case of Patrick George Zaky, a graduate student at the University of Bologna who was arrested at the Cairo airport on 7 February.


Zaky had travelled to Egypt to visit family. He is a student of the Erasmus Mundus Master of Arts "GEMMA" in Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Bologna and a researcher at the Cairo-based Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

The case has gained international attention in the media and from powerful advocacy organisations like Amnesty International, Scholars at Risk and Front Line Defenders, as Zaky was reportedly arrested in connection with his human rights activism and research.

EUA joins the University of Bologna in urging political representatives of the European Union and its member states to prioritise this matter and ensure that Patrick Zaky's fundamental rights are safeguarded from any violation.

Furthermore, EUA calls on the Egyptian authorities to release Patrick George Zaky and to recall that freedom of expression and freedom of association are expressly protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is a party.

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