Italian prosecutors on Tuesday requested a life sentence for an Egyptian security officer and long prison terms for three others accused over the 2016 kidnapping, torture and murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni in Cairo.
Regeni, a postgraduate researcher at Britain’s Cambridge University, disappeared in the Egyptian capital on January 25, 2016, while conducting research on Egypt’s independent trade unions. His body was discovered nearly a week later, showing signs of extensive torture.
Prosecutors asked a Rome court to sentence Major Magdi Sharif, an officer in Egypt’s General Intelligence service, to life in prison. They also requested prison terms of 17 years and six months for Major General Tarek Sabir, a former head of state security, police Colonel Hisham Helmy and Colonel Ather Kamal, a former head of investigations in Cairo.
The four Egyptians have never publicly responded to the accusations and are being tried in absentia under Italian law, which allows the prosecution of crimes committed abroad against Italian citizens.
Egypt has repeatedly denied any state role in Regeni’s killing, saying he was murdered by criminals.
Deputy chief prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco told the court that the case was not merely about the killing of one man, but about the “methodical, cold, organised use of violence” against a defenceless person.
“The dramatic truth is that this crime was not committed by criminals, but by men of the state,” he said during his closing arguments.
The court is not expected to issue a verdict until after the August recess.
For the first time in the trial, prosecutors showed images from Regeni’s autopsy, with the consent of his family. Colaiocco said the injuries showed Regeni had been tortured over several days while conscious.
“These were not beatings. This was a method of annihilation,” he told the court.
The case has strained relations between Italy and Egypt for years. Italian and Egyptian prosecutors initially investigated the killing together, but later reached sharply different conclusions.
Italian prosecutors accuse Sharif, Sabir, Helmy and Kamal of involvement in Regeni’s aggravated kidnapping. Sharif is also accused of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder, with prosecutors alleging he used a network of informants to monitor Regeni before he was arrested at a Cairo metro station.
The trial first opened in 2021 but was suspended after defence lawyers appointed by the court argued that proceedings would be invalid unless there was proof the defendants knew they had been charged.
Italy’s top court later ruled that Egypt’s failure to cooperate in locating the suspects should not block the trial, allowing proceedings to resume in February 2024.
Colaiocco accused Egyptian authorities of deliberately shielding those responsible.
“The Egyptian regime did not want to investigate. It chose to protect the torturers,” he said.
Regeni had been researching independent trade unions in Egypt for his doctoral thesis. Associates have said he was also interested in the influence of the state and military over Egypt’s economy, subjects widely seen as sensitive in the country.