ROME, Italy: Italy will try again today (Tuesday) to secure justice for an Italian student kidnapped and murdered in Cairo, Egypt, by opening a second trial of four Egyptian security officers accused of the brutal murder.
Giulio Regeni, 28, was doing research in Cairo when he was kidnapped in January 2016. His body was found nine days later, dumped on the peripheries of the Egyptian capital, bearing extensive signs of torture.
The assassination severely strained relations between Egypt and Italy, while Italian MPs later accused Egypt of “open hostility” to attempts to try the suspects.
Italian judges canceled the 2021 trial on the day it began because prosecutors were unable to officially inform the four suspects of the proceedings against them.
But the Constitutional Court ruled in September that the case can continue even in their absence, and a new trial is due to start today in Rome.
The four defendants were named in original court documents as General Tariq Sabir, Colonels Uhsam Helmi and Athar Kamel, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif.
They all face charges of kidnapping, while Sharif is also accused of causing fatal injuries.
But just like in 2021, he will not attend the trial.
Investigators believe Regeni was kidnapped and killed after being mistaken for a foreign spy. As part of his doctoral work, Regeni researched Egyptian unions, a particularly sensitive political issue.
His mother later said that his body was so badly mutilated that she only recognized her son by “the tip of his nose”.
According to the family’s
