Zaki Patrick

Liberevento authors

Patrick Zaki

Activist and writer

Born on June 16, 1991 in Mansura, Egypt, to Coptic Orthodox Christian parents, he graduated in pharmacy from the German University in Cairo and on July 5 he also became a doctor at the lma mater, in the Gemma Master’s Degree, in Women’s and Gender Studies. On the occasion of the 2018 Egyptian presidential elections, Patrick Zaki was one of the organizers of the electoral campaign of Khaled Ali, a lawyer and political activist committed to the defense of human rights who subsequently withdrew his candidacy denouncing the climate of intimidation and the numerous arrests of his collaborators. Zaki was a member of the human rights association Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, based in Cairo. On February 7, 2020, returning to Egypt to visit relatives, he was captured by secret service agents immediately after landing at Cairo airport, at 4 am. Here are the charges formulated in the arrest warrant: threat to national security, incitement to illegal protests, subversion, dissemination of false news, propaganda for terrorism. In particular, he is accused of some posts on Facebook. According to the Egyptian government media, Zaki is active abroad to write a thesis on homosexuality and to incite against the Egyptian state. On December 7, 2021, at the end of the third hearing, the court ordered Zaki’s release, who has remained free until now. The release was carried out the next day, December 8. He was a guest of the Liberevento Cultural Festival in 2024 with his book “Sogni e illusioni di libertà. La mia storia.” (Ed. La nave di Teseo).