Italian court suspends long-awaited Regeni murder trial
Al Jazeera
The trial in absentia of four Egyptian officers halted as judge rules they may not have been formally made aware of charges over the abduction, torture and killing in Cairo of an Italian doctoral student.
An Italian judge has suspended the trial over the murder of student Giulio Regeni in Cairo due to concerns that the defendants might not have been informed they had been charged.
The first hearing in the long-awaited trial against four Egyptian security officers on Thursday was spent deliberating over whether it was fair for the defendants to be tried in absentia.
Italian prosecutors in Rome had urged the court to continue the trial in absentia, arguing that Egyptian authorities had obstructed the investigation into the killing of the 28-year-old postgraduate student in Cairo in 2016 and had prevented Italy from contacting the suspects.