Three Egyptian security officials convicted of kidnapping Italian student
Giulio Regeni's tortured body was found days after he went missing on a research trip to Egypt in 2016, while studying at Cambridge University.
Three Egyptian security officials convicted of kidnapping Italian student
Three members of Egypt’s security forces have been convicted by a Rome court for their role in the kidnapping of Italian student Giulio Regeni.
A Rome court on Monday convicted three Egyptian security officials over the kidnapping of an Italian student whose tortured body was discovered in Cairo a decade ago.
The men, who were tried in absentia, each received 10-year prison sentences on charges of aggravated kidnapping. A fourth Egyptian defendant was acquitted.
Giulio Regeni, 28, was working toward a doctorate at Cambridge University when he disappeared during a research trip to Egypt in 2016.
Several days later, his mutilated body was found in a ditch outside Cairo. A later autopsy showed that he had been tortured.
Italian and Egyptian prosecutors initially investigated the case together, but reached different conclusions.
Egyptian authorities said criminal gangsters were responsible for Regeni’s killing and floated several other explanations for his death, including a car accident, a failed drug deal, or a botched robbery.
They also denied any state role in Regeni’s disappearance or death.
But prosecutors in Rome concluded that Egypt’s national security agency was involved in the crime.
The four defendants were Gen Tariq Sabir, Col Usham Helmi, Col Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Maj Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif. Sabir was acquitted.
Rome’s chief prosecutor and a lawyer for Regeni’s family both welcomed the ruling.
“From today, people around the world can feel safer,” Alessandra Ballerini, the family’s lawyer, said. “Impunity can be defeated and democracies can place limits on arbitrary power.”
Regeni’s family campaigned for justice throughout the decade. As the verdict was announced, family members and supporters in court, wearing yellow T-shirts and badges — the color of their campaign — remained silent, AFP reported.
Regeni was abducted on 25 January 2016 while conducting research for his PhD at Cambridge University on Egypt’s independent trade unions, a politically sensitive subject in Egypt.
His mother told the Italian parliament in 2018 that her son’s body was so badly disfigured that she could identify him only by the tip of his nose. Prosecutors said he suffered injuries indicating he had been beaten with “kicks, fists, sticks and clubs,” and that he died from a broken neck.
The verdict marked the end of a years-long effort by Italy to bring the security officials to trial.
The trial, originally set for 2021, was put on hold because prosecutors feared they had not been able to locate the defendants to serve the charges.
But in September 2023, Italy’s Constitutional Court cleared the way for the trial to proceed.
Although extradition is still considered unlikely, the convictions may revive diplomatic tensions between Italy and Egypt.