The Rome trial in absentia of four
Egyptian intelligence officers in the Januatry-February 2016
abduction, torture and murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni
was shown a video Wednesday of the Cairo street hawkers' union
leader who fingered the 28-year-old Cambridge University
doctoral researcher as a spy.
"It's clear from viewing the video that they are literally
speaking two different languages, not only because Giulio
expresses himself in classical Arabic while Abdallah uses
Egyptian dialect, but that they don't understand each other,"
said Regeni family lawyer Alessandra Ballerini.
"They don't understand each other also because they have
different intentions.
"Giulio is there to help (the trade unions) while Abdallah is
there to betray him and hand him over to National Security".
In the video, Regeni tells the union leader "I'm just here for
research".
He speaks with Abdallah, who is wearing a hidden camera, about a
£10,000 research grant which the union leader is interested in.
The two-hour video ends with Abdallah calling over one of the
four officers who are standing trial.
National Security General Tariq Sabir and his subordinates,
Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Helmi, and Major Magdi
Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif, are on trial on suspicion of torturing
to death the Friuli-born Regeni from January 25 to
February 3 that year because they thought he was a spy due to
his politically sensitive work for Girton College on independent
Cairo street seller unions.
was tortured so badly that his mother Paola
Regeni's mother Paola Deffendi said after viewing her son's body
she could only recognise him "from the tip of his nose".
Deffendi said "all the evil in the world" was visited on her
son's body.
His body, according to an Italian autopsy, showed major signs
of extreme torture: contusions and abrasions all over from a
severe beating; extensive bruising from kicks, punches, and
assault with a stick; more than two dozen bone fractures, among
them seven broken ribs, all fingers and toes, as well as legs,
arms, and shoulder blades; multiple stab wounds on the body
including the soles of the feet, possibly from an ice pick or
awl-like instrument; numerous cuts over the entire body made
with a sharp instrument suspected to be a razor; extensive
cigarette burns; a larger burn mark between the shoulder blades
made with a hard and hot object; a brain haemorrhage; and a
broken cervical vertebra, which ultimately caused death.
The four officers are on trial even though it has proved
impossible, due to Egyptian lack of cooperation, to inform them
of the proceedings.
The trial also heard Wednesday that the intelligence officers
made a copy of Regeni's passport a month before his abduction.
At various times Egypt has advanced differing explanations for
Regeni's death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff and
abduction and murder by the alleged kidnapping gang that was
wiped out after his documents were planted in their lair.
Lack of cooperation on the case by Egypt led to Rome's
temporarily withdrawing its ambassador from Cairo for a spell.
The Regenis have appealed to the EU for help in finding the
truth about their son's slaying and have condemned continued
Italian arms sales to Egypt including two frigates, as well as
new gas and migration deals.
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