The organization that he works for says the authorities are holding him on charges of spreading false news, misuse of social media, and incitement to demonstrate without permission.

His family in Egypt has issued a statement calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Zaki, the dismissal of all charges against him and the freedom to complete his studies abroad.

“Our son never posed any danger to anyone, he was a real help and support for many […],” the family’s statement said. “We did not expect him to be treated this way or to ever face such fears about his safety.”

Studies of Legal and Gender Issues

Zaki studied pharmacy at an Egyptian private university before switching to conduct legal research, specifically on gender issues. He found himself passionate about those issues, according to Amr Abdel-Wahab, 29, a Berlin-based colleague of Zaki’s.

Abdel-Wahab explained that Zaki wanted to study in Italy to fill the gaps in his understanding of the theoretical aspect of his work, by studying women’s rights and gender issues. He received a scholarship for his studies in Italy, and the research for his thesis took months.

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In a telephone interview with Al-Fanar Media, Abdel-Wahab said that Zaki “still needs to study for a year and a half to finish his program, which includes moving among different Italian universities during his studies.”

Abdel-Wahab, who got acquainted with Zaki during their involvement in the student movement at the university where they got their bachelor’s degrees, said that Zaki was determined to return to Egypt after completing his studies, to continue working in his research institution on the same issues in more depth, and to discover more solutions to problems facing women and minorities.

Reminders of Other Researchers’ Fates

Zaki’s arrest reminds some observers of the murder of a young Italian researcher, Giulio Regeni, a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge, in Cairo nearly four years ago. Regeni was conducting research in Cairo about Egypt’s labor movement and his body was found mutilated with traces of torture in a Cairo suburb in 2016. (See a related article, “The Price of Egypt’s Anti-Cosmopolitanism”.)