An Egyptian court on Tuesday sentenced Patrick Zaki, a rights researcher who had been studying in Italy and was accused of spreading false news, to three years in jail, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) said.
Zaki had been arrested during a visit to Egypt in February 2020 while he was a graduate student at the University of Bologna in Italy, and was charged with disseminating false information over an article he wrote about the plight of Egypt's Christians.
He served 22 months in pre-trial detention before being released pending the completion of his trial at a state security court in his hometown of Mansoura.
"He has been arrested now and is being transferred to jail," EIPR head Hossam Bahgat told Reuters after the sentence was announced on Tuesday.
