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World

Italian court convicts three Egyptian security officials over 2016 kidnapping of Giulio Regeni

A Rome court sentenced three Egyptian security officials to 10 years in prison for the aggravated kidnapping of Cambridge student Giulio Regeni, whose tortured body was found in Cairo in 2016. A fourth defendant was acquitted.

By Sarah Whitfield · · 1 min read

Portrait of Giulio Regeni, the Cambridge University doctoral student
Asiaecica / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

An Italian court in Rome on Monday convicted three Egyptian security officials of involvement in the 2016 kidnapping of Giulio Regeni, the Cambridge University student whose tortured body was found days after he disappeared in Cairo, and sentenced each of them to 10 years in prison. A fourth defendant was acquitted.

The court found Major Magdi Sharif of Egypt’s General Intelligence, police Colonel Hisham Helmy and Colonel Ather Kamal, a former head of investigations in Cairo, guilty of the “aggravated kidnapping” of Regeni, according to Reuters. Major General Tarek Sabir, the former head of state security, was acquitted of the same charge, and the judge also dismissed the accusation of “conspiracy to commit aggravated murder” levelled against Sharif.

Prosecutors had sought a life term for Sharif and 17 years and six months in jail for the other three. All four men were tried in absentia under Italian legislation allowing the prosecution of crimes committed abroad against Italian citizens, and have never publicly responded to the accusations. It is highly unlikely any of those convicted will be extradited to serve their sentences.

Regeni, a 28-year-old Italian doctoral candidate at the University of Cambridge, vanished in the Egyptian capital on January 25, 2016, while conducting research on independent trade unions. His body was found almost a week later on the outskirts of Cairo, with a post-mortem showing he had been extensively tortured before his death.

Rome chief prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi welcomed the verdict, telling reporters the result was achieved “despite what can be described as less than wholehearted cooperation from the Egyptian authorities”. Egypt has consistently denied any state involvement in Regeni’s death, initially blaming a gang of criminals.

Sources

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