Deputy Chief Prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco began his summation Tuesday in the in-absentia trial of four Egyptian security officials for the murder of Giulio Regeni. They stand accused of the abduction, torture and murder of the Italian researcher in Cairo in 2016.
More than ten years after the death of Giulio Regeni, the in-absentia trial of the four Egyptian security officials accused of his murder reached a decisive stage on Tuesday. Rome Deputy Chief Prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco began his closing arguments before the Court of Assizes at the Rebibbia bunker courtroom.
“What is being judged here is not the simple suppression of a human life.” Colaiocco told the court, “What is being judged here is the methodical, cold, organised exercise of violence against a defenceless man. What is being judged here is the abduction of a person stripped of all protection. What is being judged here is prolonged torture as an instrument of domination.”
He closed his opening remarks with a deliberate restatement of the victim’s identity: “That man had a name, a face, a story: Giulio Regeni, an Italian citizen, a young researcher. A free man.”
Colaiocco’s summation is scheduled to continue on Wednesday, after which civil parties — including Regeni’s family — will address the court. Defence counsel for the four absent defendants are expected to speak on 13 and 14 July. A verdict could follow in September, after the summer recess.
The Case
Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old doctoral researcher from Friuli born in Fiumicello, was studying street trade unions in Cairo for his PhD at Cambridge University when he disappeared from the Cairo metro on 25 January 2016. It was the fifth anniversary of the Egyptian revolution. His half-naked body was found in a ditch on the Cairo–Alexandria highway on 3 February, bearing marks of severe and sustained torture. Italian forensic pathologists established he had been subjected to repeated violence over a period of days before his death.
The four defendants are National Security General Tariq Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Usham Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif. They are charged with kidnapping, aggravated torture and murder. None has attended a single hearing. Egypt has consistently refused to formally notify the defendants of the proceedings. Therefore, the trial rendered as an in-absentia process under Italian law.
The road to Tuesday’s summation has been protracted and repeatedly obstructed. Egypt initially denied any involvement in Regeni’s disappearance. Eventually, it admitted, in September 2016, that its security services had monitored him in the days before he vanished. Cairo has provided contradictory accounts, withheld evidence, and declined to cooperate with Italian judicial requests throughout the decade-long investigation.
The trial itself has been suspended and restarted multiple times.
