Zaki, who earlier this month obtained a masters degree in women’s and gender studies from the higher education institute, with the maximum grade of 110 with distinction, was taken away via a passage in the cage for defendants amid screams from his mother and girlfriend, who were waiting outside for him.

Under the ruling he will now have to spend a further 14 months in jail, having already served 22 months in pre-trial detention between February 2020 and December 2021 on separate charges of subversive propaganda connected to some Facebook posts.

However, on Tuesday afternoon his lawyers said they were trying to secure his release.

Lawyer Samweil Tharwat said Zaki had not yet been taken back to prison, but was being held by police pending a pronouncement on the sentence by the military governor.

Earlier, the same lawyers said they would ask the military governor to annul the ruling or order a retrial.

Separately, qualified legal sources said Zaki would “return to prison” for the duration of the appeal.

Zaki was first arrested at Cairo airport in February 2020 while returning to Egypt from Bologna to visit family.

He was subsequently released from custody in December 2021 but put on trial for allegedly spreading fake news in relation to three articles on Coptic Christians in Egypt, and he was banned from leaving the country.

Centre-left opposition Democratic Party (Pd) lawmaker Stefano Vaccari has called on Prime Minister Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to “react strongly” to a sentence that he called a “disgrace”. (Photo: ANSA)

Earlier this month Zaki graduated from Bologna University, defending his thesis via video link after the authorities in his homeland refused permission for him to present it in person.

Amnesty International Italia spokesperson Riccardo Noury described Tuesday’s verdict as “absurd and scandalous”.

“After 22 months of harsh imprisonment and a trial that began more than a year ago, the image of Patrick Zaki being dragged out of the courtroom in Mansoura is terrifying,” Noury said.

“After his release from prison at the end of 2021 and his graduation a fortnight ago, many thought everything was OK.

“Now it is time to join Amnesty International, Bologna’s academic and political institutions and the city’s civil society once more in the ‘Free Patrick Zaki’ campaign,” Noury said.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday, the government remains committed to a positive solution in the case.

“Our commitment to a positive solution in the case of Patrick Zaki has never ceased, it is ongoing, we are still confident,” Meloni said.

Earlier centre-left opposition Democratic Party (Pd) lawmaker Stefano Vaccari called on Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to “react strongly” to a sentence that he called a “disgrace”.

“After two years of pre-trial detention and another two years of humiliation, now Zaki has received an unappealable sentence of three years’ imprisonment for expressing political opinions on social networks in favour of human rights,” Vaccari said.

“(He was) led away from the court in handcuffs like the worst of terrorists.

“(It is) a disgrace,” he continued, calling on Italy to “react with diplomatic and institutional force”.

“It is up to the government, to Prime Minister Meloni and Minister Tajani.

“Without any hesitation. Zaki’s freedom in the name of democracy and freedom,” he concluded.

Separately, Pd Secretary Elly Schlein called on Tajani to report to parliament on “this very serious injustice”.

ANSA