A court in Italy on Monday set a February date for a new trial in absentia of four Egyptian security officers accused of murdering an Italian student in 2016. Giulio Regeni, 28, was researching his doctorate at Cambridge University when he was abducted while in Cairo. His body, bearing extensive signs of torture, was eventually found dumped on the outskirts of the city.
Italian judges threw out an original case brought to trial two years ago because prosecutors had not been able to officially inform the four suspects, members of Egypt’s National Security Agency (NSA), of the procedures against them.
Egypt has repeatedly refused to provide their contact details. But Italy’s Constitutional Court ruled in September that the case could go ahead, and a Rome judge on Monday set a new trial date for February 20, according to the ANSA and AGI news agencies. “We thank everyone, today is a beautiful day,” Regeni’s mother, Paola Deffendi, told reporters.
The officers are accused of kidnapping, conspiracy to murder and grievous bodily harm in a case that sparked outrage in Italy and strained Rome’s diplomatic relations with Egypt.
An Italian parliamentary commission found in December 2021 — just weeks after the case was thrown out on the day it opened — that Egypt’s security agency was to blame for Regeni’s death. It also accused Egypt’s judiciary of acting in an “obstructive and openly hostile manner” by failing to disclose the whereabouts of the defendants. In the original case, the four were identified in court documents as General Tariq Sabir, Colonels Athar Kamel and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif, who was accused of carrying out the killing.
Investigators believe Regeni was abducted and killed after being mistaken for a foreign spy. Regeni’s body was found nine days after he disappeared. His mother later said it had been so badly mutilated that she recognised her son only by the “tip of his nose”.
Five of his teeth had been broken, 15 of his bones had been fractured and letters had been inscribed into his flesh, according to the family’s lawyer, Alessandra Ballerini. As part of his doctoral work, Regeni had been researching Egyptian trade unions, a particularly sensitive political issue.
In December 2020, all four suspects as well as a fifth were cleared of responsibility for Regeni’s murder by Egypt’s public prosecutor, who said he would drop the case.
