The young man was allegedly released after the beatings to avoid feeling ill while in his cell, but immediately fell into a coma.
“We learned with pain and deep shock from Amnesty International that one of our Iranian students, Mehdi Zare Ashkzari, who had studied pharmacy in Bologna, died as a result of torture in Iran. It seems he went to visit his dying mother. We express all our indignation, bewilderment and pain with him and for all the Iranian students who lost their lives for everyone’s freedom. The university and the city of Bologna will continue to ask for justice and the intervention of the institutions”, said the Professor Rita Monticelli, speaking at the peace march underway in Bologna. Monticelli is coordinator of the Master Gemma, attended by Patrick Zaki and delegate of the mayor for human rights and interreligious and intercultural dialogue.
“From Bologna we send a very strong thought to the family of Mehdi Zare Ashkzari, who was tortured and died in Iran after 20 days in a coma. To all that population that fights for that freedom of women and men in Iran. We send a big hug of brotherhood and sisterhood to the Iranian community that I see here”, said the deputy mayor of Bologna Emily Clancy, speaking on the stage in Piazza Nettuno.
Zaki: Unibo has a new victim of freedom
“The new year starts with this news to give us an alert on the human rights violations taking place in the Swana region and in particular in Iran. Unibo now has a new victim of freedom of expression. Unfortunately, this time, it was too late to save him. All my condolences to his family and to us for this great loss”, instead denounced Patrick Zaki, the Egyptian student of Unibo arrested in his homeland on 7 February 2020 until 8 December 2021 and still on trial for crimes of ‘opinion.
