Three Egyptian officers convicted of kidnapping Giulio Regeni
A court in Rome has convicted three Egyptian security officers of kidnapping Giulio Regeni, an Italian PhD student at Cambridge, in Cairo in 2016. None of them was in court.
On 28 September the Rome Court of Assizes gave the three officers of Egypt's National Security Agency 10 years each for aggravated kidnapping. A fourth defendant, a general, was acquitted. The court dropped the murder charge against one of the officers. Prosecutors had asked for life for him and 17 and a half years for the others.
Regeni was 28 and was researching Egypt's independent trade unions. He disappeared in Cairo on 25 January 2016, the fifth anniversary of the Tahrir Square uprising. On 3 February his body was found by the desert road to Alexandria, with signs of torture. In March 2016 Egyptian police blamed a criminal gang and released photos of his passport and university cards. Rome prosecutors charged Egyptian security officers instead.
Egypt never gave Italy the officers' addresses. In 2023 Italy's Constitutional Court ruled that the trial could go ahead without them. The prime minister's office joined the case as a civil party and asked for €2 million in damages.
The family's lawyer, Alessandra Ballerini, said their "faith in justice was well placed" and asked the government to break off relations with Egypt. Elly Schlein, who leads the opposition Democratic Party, said no one could ever again deny the Egyptian regime's responsibility. By Monday evening neither Egypt nor the Italian government had commented.
The voice in this reel is AI-generated. Photos: Wikimedia Commons (Asiaecica, CC BY-SA 4.0, shared alike; DellaGherardesca, CC BY 4.0; Egyptian Interior Ministry, public domain). Script and checks by The Italy Desk.
Does a verdict delivered in absentia still matter?
ANSA, Euronews, Il Post, Fanpage, Il Sole 24 Ore, The Local
