The trial of four Egyptian
intelligence officers accused of the kidnapping, torture and
murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni in Cairo in 2016, began
on Tuesday in a court in Rome.
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.
"It's a very important day," said Giulio Regeni's parents,
Claudio and Paola, as they entered the court for the first
hearing.
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's 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.
On January 25 Italy marked the eighth anniversary of Regeni's
disappearance with events titled All The Chickens Come Home To
Roost referring to the long-awaited Rome trial.
Regeni is believed to have been killed after a street seller
union head fingered him as an alleged spy, and to the
politically sensitive nature of his doctoral research for the
British university
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
