Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi expressed his satisfaction at the news, after Italy had campaigned for 22 months to have Zaki released.

“[The case] has been and will be followed with the utmost attention by the Italian government,” Draghi said in a statement issued by Palazzo Chigi.

Zaki is expected to be released from prison in the coming days, however, the 30-year-old has not been acquitted of charges of spreading false news, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

A graduate student at the University of Bologna, Zaki is a researcher on gender and human rights at the Cairo-based Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

He was arrested in Cairo in February 2020, on his way home to Mansoura, after returning from Italy where he had been studying for a master’s degree in Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Bologna.

Zaki was accused of publishing false news with the intent of inciting social disturbance and using subversive propaganda against the Egyptian state.

He denies the charges.

In September, Zaki was referred to trial in front of an exceptional state security court for an article containing excerpts from his personal diary recounting the discrimination faced by Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, which makes up about 10 to 15 per cent of the country’s population of more than 100 million.

Tuesday’s decision was announced after the third hearing of a trial against the student, reports ANSA, with the next hearing scheduled for February 1.

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said the ruling was the first step in having Zaki acquitted of charges.

Thousands in Italy had signed petitions calling for Zaki’s release, and the country’s senate in April voted to grant him Italian citizenship, allowing him to receive consular support.