CAIRO (Reuters) – Patrick Zaki, an Egyptian rights researcher arrested last year on a trip home from Italy, was released from detention in Egypt on Wednesday pending the resumption of his trial on charges of spreading false information.
A picture published by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) showed Zaki smiling as he hugged his sister on a street in his hometown of Mansoura, north of Cairo.
A judge in Mansoura ordered Zaki’s release on Tuesday, saying his trial would restart in February.
His case has drawn wide attention in Italy, coming after the 2016 killing in Egypt of Italian graduate student Giulio Regeni shook relations between Rome and Cairo.
(Reporting by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
