Four Egyptian National Security Agency officials have been charged for their involvement in the kidnapping and killing of an Italian graduate student in Cairo in 2016, Italy announced, according to The New York Times.
The murder of Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old Ph.D. student at Cambridge University in Britain, stemmed from the diplomatic relations between Rome and Cairo, The New York Times reported. Italian investigators soon found themselves to be alone in trying to determine the cause of Regeni’s death following little effort from Egypt to cooperate.
The indictment accused the four officials of the “aggravated kidnapping” of Regeni, while one was also charged with “conspiracy to commit aggravated murder”, according to The New York Times.
“This is an extremely important result,” Michele Prestipino Giarritta, Rome’s chief prosecutor, said in a hearing before an Italian parliamentary commission. “Prosecutors did everything they could to investigate. We owed it to Giulio’s memory.”
Italy announced that four officials with the Egyptian National Security Agency would be tried in connection with the abduction and murder of an Italian doctoral student in Cairo in 2016 https://t.co/V1OFFRCAWT
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) December 10, 2020
The four Egyptian National Security Agency officials charged in connection to the death of Regeni, Maj. Madgi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif, Maj. Gen. Tariq Sabir, Col. Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Col. Uhsam Helmi, will all be tried, according to the Rome prosecutor’s office. Additionally, Sharif would also be tried for the murder of Regeni. The prosecutors have dropped charges against a fifth suspect, due to insufficient evidence.
The four officials charged have 20 days to present new evidence or request to be heard in the case, according to The Wall Street Journal. Following this time period, a judge will choose whether or not to move forward with a trial. The trial would be expected to occur in Rome next year.
Egypt’s prosecutors have said that they had “emphatic reservations” and “did not support” the Italian decision to press charges, which they claim were made “without solid evidence”, according to The New York Times. This did not deter the Italians from moving forward.
“We deem to have gathered unambiguous and meaningful evidence on the responsibility of the suspects,” said Giarritta. (RELATED: Anti-Establishment Mayor Of Rome Says The Mob Planned To Kill Her And Her Family)
He noted that, despite the difficult and complex relationship with Egyptian authorities, his investigators were able to determine the context in which Regeni’s murder had occurred, with substantial evidence, The New York Times reported.
Several days after he disappeared, Regeni’s corpse was found on the side of a road outside of Cairo with cigarette burns, stab wounds, broken bones, bruises and other physical elements that autopsies say were signs of torture.
Regeni had been under surveillance by the Egyptian state before his murder, according to Italian prosecutors. On Thursday, they offered additional evidence that connected Egyptian security officials to the killing. Highlighting a witness testimony, prosecutors said Regeni was held captive and tortured inside of Egypt’s Ministry of Interior in downtown Cairo, in a National Security Agency building, which was several days before his death, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“Giulio shed a light on Egypt, on what Egypt is really like,” Paola Deffendi, Regeni’s mother, said after Thursday’s announcement. “Now everybody can see what Egypt’s dictatorship is like. Giulio is like a mirror that shows to the whole world that human rights are being violated in Egypt every day.”