Italian Court Convicts Three Egyptian Officials Over Regeni Kidnapping

A court in Rome on Sunday convicted three Egyptian security officials in absentia of the aggravated kidnapping of Giulio Regeni, the Italian postgraduate student abducted and killed in Cairo in 2016, sentencing each to ten years in prison.¹²³⁴

The verdict

The three men convicted were Magdi Sharif, a major with Egypt's General Intelligence Service; Hisham Helmy, a police colonel; and Ather Kamal, a colonel and former head of investigations in Cairo. Each received a ten-year sentence for aggravated kidnapping. A fourth defendant, Major General Tarek Sabir, former head of state security, was acquitted.¹²³⁴

The men were tried in absentia after Italy attempted, without success, to obtain their addresses through diplomatic channels. A murder charge against Sharif was dismissed. The Rome court also ordered the three convicted men to pay damages to Regeni's family and to the Italian state; Italy had sought two million euros in damages.²¹⁴⁵

Defence lawyers had petitioned for the case to be dismissed, arguing that the charges "indiscriminately targeted the group without attributing specific acts", according to the dossier's account of their submissions.⁵

The case

Giulio Regeni, 28, was a postgraduate researcher at Cambridge University who was in Cairo studying trade union activity, including among street vendors, when he disappeared on 25 January 2016. His body was found dumped on the outskirts of Cairo nearly a week later, showing five broken teeth, fifteen fractured bones and, according to some accounts, letters inscribed in his flesh. His mother said she "recognised him only by the tip of his nose."³¹⁴⁵

A post-mortem indicated Regeni had been extensively tortured. Human rights activists said the pattern of injuries resembled those documented in people tortured in Egyptian security facilities. Italian prosecutors said his abduction and killing were linked to the trade union research he was conducting.¹³

At the outset, prosecutors from both Italy and Egypt worked together on the investigation. Egyptian authorities said a criminal gang was responsible for the killing and that its members had been killed in a police shootout; Egypt later said Regeni's killers remained unknown. Egyptian authorities have also suggested his death resulted from a car accident, a failed drug deal or a botched robbery. Rome prosecutors concluded that Egypt's national security agency was involved.¹²

A decade-long process

A first trial opened in 2021 but was thrown out because prosecutors were unable to formally notify the suspects. Also in 2020, Egypt's public prosecutor had cleared all four suspects of responsibility for the killing. In 2021, an Italian parliamentary commission determined that responsibility for Regeni's death lay with Egypt's security agency.⁴⁵

In September 2023, Italy's Constitutional Court ruled that the trial could proceed despite Egypt's lack of cooperation, and Italy's top court later held that Egypt's failure to assist the investigation should not impede the case. Rome's chief prosecutor, Francesco Lo Voi, said he would examine the court's decision before determining whether to appeal.⁵¹⁴

Reaction and diplomatic context

Relations between Italy and Egypt deteriorated sharply after Regeni's killing, and the conviction is expected to renew diplomatic strain between the two countries. The dossier notes Antonio Tajani met Egyptian President al-Sisi in Cairo. Given the state of relations, the convicted men are considered unlikely to face extradition, according to Al Jazeera.⁴⁵¹

Regeni's family, who campaigned for a decade for justice and wore yellow t-shirts and badges representing their campaign, embraced in the courtroom after the verdict was read.⁷²