Four Egyptian officials back on trial in Italy over death of Giulio Regeni
Al Jazeera
Italy’s top court decided last year to proceed with the trial against the four officials, who will be tried in absentia.
The trial of four Egyptian security agents accused of kidnapping and murdering an Italian student in Cario opened in Italy on Tuesday following a prolonged delay in the proceedings over its legality.
Giulio Regeni, a postgraduate student at the United Kingdom’s Cambridge University, disappeared in the Egyptian capital in January 2016, where he was researching union activities among street vendors as part of his doctoral thesis.
A month after his disappearance, the body of the 28-year-old was found on the side of a highway on the edge of Cairo, bearing cigarette burns, broken teeth, and fractured bones. A post-mortem examination showed he had been tortured before his death.
Human rights activists also said the marks on his body were reminiscent of those resulting from widespread torture in Egyptian security agency facilities.
Regeni’s parents, Paola and Giulio Regeni, attended the opening court session on Tuesday and posed outside the court with the banner “Truth for Giulio Regeni”.
