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Egyptian Human Rights Activist Arrested After Returning from Italy

The 27-year-old Egyptian researcher was critical of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi's government while studying in Italy.

Egyptian police have arrested 27-year-old human rights activist Patrick George Zaki after he spoke out against President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi’s government. Lawyers for Zaki told the Italian press that the student—who was studying in Bologna, Italy—was detained at Cairo International Airport on Friday and roughed up by police. He is still in custody. Zaki had recently waged a campaign in Italy for greater transparency into the death of Italian Cambridge grad student Giulio Regeni, who was tortured and killed in Cairo in 2016 after researching opposition politicians and labor unions in Cairo. Zaki’s arrest is being described as a product of an unprecedented crackdown on dissident voices. Zaki had taken leave from the NGO Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights to work on a master’s degree in gender studies at the University of Bologna.