Judge halts trial for 4 members of Egyptian security forces

A Rome judge has halted the trial of four high-ranking members of Egypt’s security forces on the day it began

ROME -- A Rome judge halted the trial of four high-ranking members of Egypt’s security forces on the day it opened Thursday, saying there was no certainty they had been formally made aware that they were charged in the abduction, torture and killing in Cairo of an Italian doctoral student.

Citing the need to guarantee a fair trial, Judge Antonella Capri nullified the decision to put the four on trial and ordered the documentation returned to prosecutors, who must try again to locate the suspects. Her decision was a blow to prosecutors who have been trying to bring Giulio Regeni’s killers to justice for five years.

Regeni’s body was found on a highway days after he disappeared in the Egyptian capital on Jan. 25, 2016. He was in Cairo to research union activities among street vendors as part of his doctoral thesis.

Defense lawyers had called for the trial to be suspended, saying their clients had never been formally notified of the charges because they never provided addresses, and were therefore technically “untraceable.” Four empty chairs were left for them in the courtroom in Rome’s Rebibbia bunker tribunal Thursday.