Light needs to be shed on the
responsibilities of the principals and not just of the material
executors in the kidnapping, torture and murder of Italian
doctoral student Giulio Regeni in Cairo in 2016, centre-left
opposition Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein said on
Tuesday.
"Today is another important day in the battle for truth and
justice for Giulio Regeni, with a new hearing that stems from
the determination of the family and those who have accompanied
this battle," said Schlein of the opening in Rome of the trial
of four Egyptian intelligence officers accused of the crime.
"We continue to stand alongside the family in the demand for
truth and justice, also through the presence of our lawmakers
with a media escort" at the courthouse in Piazzale Clodio, she
added.
Schlein highlighted the "clear will" on the part of the Egyptian
government "not to cooperate and to throw off track and try to
prevent this trial from taking place".
"Instead, we must piece together the responsibilities not only
of the material executors but also of the principals. We want
the full truth, not just a half-truth," she concluded.
The four Egyptian security officials, National Security General
Tariq Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed
Ibrahim and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif,
have been put on trial in absentia after Cairo long stonewalled
the case and refused to give their addresses or contact numbers.
This caused a long delay, when ended in September when the
Constitutional Court ruled that the trial could proceed even
though the officers have not been formally notified of the
proceedings against them.
Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University doctoral researcher
into independent Egyptian trade unions, disappeared on the Cairo
metro on January 25, 2016 and his mutilated, semi-naked body was
found in a ditch on the road to Alexandria on February 3.
His torture and murder sparked global outrage, with more than
4,600 academics signing a petition calling for an investigation
into his death and into the many disappearances that take place
in Egypt each month.
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