Mediaboss Marketing

Italian prosecutors have asked a judge to put four senior members of Egypts powerful security services on trial over their suspected role in the disappearance and murder of Giulio Regeni in Cairo in 2016, as the case finally reached a courtroom five years after his death.

The 28-year-old doctoral student went missing in Cairo on 25 January 2016 while researching Egypts unions. His body was discovered on an outlying Cairo highway nine days later, displaying signs of extreme torture and abuse.

The Rome prosecutors have accused Gen Tariq Saber, Col Aser Ibrahim, Capt Hesham Helmi, and Maj Magdi Abd al-Sharif of the aggravated kidnapping of Regeni. Sharif, they say, should also be charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated murder.

Any trial will take place in absentia, after the Egyptian state refused to recognise the Italian legal process or extradite the four suspects. Preliminary hearings were suspended until 25 May after one of the state-appointed defence lawyers was quarantined due to exposure to Covid-19.

The hearings mark the culmination of five years of investigation into Regenis death, and a vanishingly rare moment of accountability for Egypts security forces. A judge is expected to spend the coming weeks weighing whether to continue the trial, potentially indicting the suspects for murder before full trial proceedings begin.

The Regeni family, their legal team and human rights groups investigating a pattern of abuses by Egyptian security forces welcomed the hearing, despite it occurring in absentia. Some observers remarked that the Italian authorities should do more to pressure Egypt into extraditing the suspects.

Regenis parents, Paola and Claudio Regeni, issued a joint statement via their lawyer Alessandra Ballerini this week urging more potential witnesses to come forward.

Many other witnesses are coming forward, they said. Time is a great ally. Well keep asking everyone with information to come forward and speak. We will guarantee their security and will not disclose their identity, as we have done so far. Once again we ask you: help us, for Giulio and for all of us.

On 14 April, Rome prosecutors said three new witnesses came forward to accuse the four Egyptian security service members of torturing and murdering the Italian student.

One of the witnesses reportedly told prosecutors that the four staged a robbery gone wrong to try to cover up Regenis torture and murder. The witnesses, deemed reliable by the prosecutors, say Regeni was kidnapped by agents of the Egyptian National Security Agency (NSA) on 25 January 2016, and taken to at least two security facilities in the space of a few hours.

Egyptian officials have denied any involvement in the killing and Egypts public prosecutor officially closed its own investigation into Regenis murder late last year, saying that the Italian authorities claims of the officers involvement did not rise to the level of evidence.

Its unprecedented for NSA officers to be prosecuted and have the case heard in a court of law, said Hussein Baoumi, a researcher on Egypt with Amnesty International. Torture is so prevalent in Egypt, everyone knows the NSA is practising it as well as enforced disappearances and unlawful killings. But there has never been a case where an officer was prosecuted and went to trial. Yes this is in absentia, but it sends a strong message that you cant escape justice forever.

All four accused officers are still serving, and Saber was recently promoted. This means theyre potentially in a position to commit similar crimes, said Baoumi.

The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, whose lawyers act as the Regeni familys legal representation in Egypt, reported last year that at least 2,653 people had been forcibly disappeared by security forces, primarily the NSA, since 2015. The NSA has been freed to commit violations unchecked, the commission said.

Regenis death soured relations between Italy and Egypt, and Rome initially withdrew its ambassador from Cairo in protest. It subsequently restored its top envoy and there has been no let-up in trade relations. Days after prosecutors called for the trial of the four Egyptians, Italy handed over the first of two frigates to the Egyptian navy in a deal worth up to 1.2bn (1bn).

Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said Italian authorities should resist Egypts efforts to protect the officers. The trial is a positive step, but these officers are still potentially escaping justice if the Egyptians authorities dont hand them over to Italy or prosecute them in Egypt, which they dont want to do, said Baoumi.

Original post:
Italian judge is asked to put Egyptian officers on trial over Giulio Regeni death - The Guardian