Three Egyptian security officers convicted in Italy in the kidnapping and murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni in 2016.
A Rome court has sentenced three Egyptian security officers to long prison terms in absentia for the kidnapping and murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni in 2016. The case has been a major diplomatic row between Italy and Egypt.
Colonel Usham Helmi, Colonel Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif were convicted of the murder of Giulio Regeni, who went missing during a research trip to Egypt in January 2016.
A fourth officer, General Tariq Sabir, was found not guilty.
Regeni, a Cambridge University doctorate student, was found beaten to death with his hands cut off after he went missing in Cairo in January 2016. He had been investigating Egypt’s independent trade unions when he disappeared.
The Italian government has accused Egypt of being involved in his killing, but Egyptian authorities have consistently denied the allegations, claiming that private gangs were responsible for the murder.
They also suggested that an accident involving a car crash could be the cause of death. Other theories included a drugs deal gone wrong and a robbery.
However, prosecutors in Rome accused Egypt’s national security agency of being responsible for the murder.
The sentence was widely welcomed by Regeni’s family lawyers, including Alessandra Ballerini, who said it demonstrated that “impunity is not a synonym for power”, adding that democracies have the right to stop “capricious excesses of power”.
Prosecutors said Regeni had been beaten to death with his neck broken.
The conviction of the three Egyptian officers will have little effect on their possible extradition, but it has increased the tensions between the two countries.
