Patrick Zaki’s release has raised questions about the Regeni case, which remained unsolved due to serious failures by Egyptians to find the suspects in the Italian trial of the Friulian researcher’s death in Cairo in 2016.
“No bartering with Regeni, no covert negotiations. The government was able to bring back to Italy a young researcher who risked staying in prison for a while longer. We have achieved this result and it seems to me that it is not a trivial result,” Antonio Tajani, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, said on Radio 24.
AND on the arrival of Patrick Zaki in Italy “We’ll see when he arrives. Today he was at the embassy, spoke to our ambassador in Cairo.”
“We always demand the same thing by continuing to talk to Egypt.” It was “a tireless work that has lasted for months since the government took office”. For months, “we have always demanded with great urgency the release of Zaki and the clarification of the Regeni affair.”
The Egyptian President has always said that he would give positive answers. Someone said I was naive, but through the careful work of the Prime Minister, the Farnesina, the Secret Service and the Ambassador, we managed to get the desired result. That’s because we’re a credible government, we didn’t shout or threaten, we made sure the secret service worked.” And “I think that’s how politics should act, in politics facts count, gossip is zero.” As for the criticism, “they obviously don’t know what to say.” We were interested in getting a young man who had graduated in Italy out of prison. The result has been achieved, the rest is useless controversy from those who do not know what to say.”