Rome prosecutors appeal Regeni trial suspension

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 2 - Rome prosecutors on Monday appealed against a preliminary hearings judge's (GUP) April 11 suspension of the proxy trial of four Egyptian intelligence officers in the abduction, torture and murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni in Cairo in early 2016 on the grounds that they could not be located to be served notice of the proceedings.
    Assistant Prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco asked the supreme Court of Cassation to quash the GUP's decision to suspend the trial after a Court of Assizes in Rome said in October the trial could not go ahead because the defendants had not been notified of its existence due to lack of cooperation from Cairo.
    National Security General Tariq Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif, were on trial at the third Court of Assizes in Rome in mid-October when the judge ruled the trial could not proceed because they had not been served notice of it.
    The family of Regeni, a 28-year-old Friuli-born Cambridge University doctoral researcher who was tortured to death in Cairo because of his politically sensitive research into Cairo street hawkers' unions, appealed on April 15 for help in finding the addresses of the four Egyptian security officers indicted in his killing.
    "Help us find them," said the lawyer for Claudio Regeni and Paola Defendi, Alessandra Bellerini in a Facebook post in Italian, English and Arabic.
    The photos of the four defendants - National Security General Tariq Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif - were also posted.
    In her ruling, the GUP ordered ROS special branch Carabinieri to carry out fresh efforts to track down the four, while Regeni's parents urged Premier Mario Draghi to intervene.
    The next hearing in the case was set for October 10.
    In Friday's Facebook post, lawyer Ballerini said: "These images portray: ATHAR KAMEL MOHAMED, Born in Egypt in 1968, holder of military identification document nr. 5/89; UHSAM HELMI, Colonel, born in Egypt in 1968, holder of military identification document nr. 270/1990; MAGDI IBRAHIM ABDELAL SHARIF, born in Egypt on 09.07.1984; "These three are accused of the kidnapping, torture and murder of Giulio Regeni.
    "There is a fourth accused: TARIQ SABIR, born in Egypt in 1963, holder of military identification document nr. 791/1984/19, General of Police at the Department of Homeland Security, of whom we have no photo at the moment.
    "We know who they are, we know their faces and we know how much harm they are capable of doing. Can you kindly help us find them? "We need their residential addresses to be able to process (sic) them in Italy. Help us find them. Let's not give them the chance to hide behind their arrogant cowardice once again and continue doing "all the evil in the world" with impunity.
    "Anyone with news about them and their residential addresses should kindly contact the undersigned and I will protect the anonymity of any witness. Let's make justice win!" The GUP described the Cairo prosecutor-general's arguments as to why the defendants cannot be found as "wholly specious", adding that "the Egyptian authorities' refusal to cooperate is now a proven fact".
    On October 10 the GUP will hear from the justice ministry's judicial affairs office chief Nicola Russo on possible developments after a statement sent by the Egyptians following a meeting on March 15.
    Meanwhile Regeni's parents and many politicians, especially on the left, have protested a new gas deal with Egypt to help Italy cut its reliance on Russian gas amid the Ukraine war.
    A justice ministry note issued for the April 11 hearing said there has been "no cooperation whatsoever" from Egyptian authorities on the case.
    The note described the stance of Egyptian authorities as one of "total closure" on the researcher into Egyptian street-seller unions, who was tortured so badly his mother said she only recognised him by the tip of his nose.
    Ballerini asked "Premier Draghi, sharing our indignation, to demand, without any ifs or buts, the defendants to divulge their domiciles" so they can be served.
    "We take note of the justice ministry's failed attempts to obtain concrete collaboration from the Egyptian authorities and we are saddened and indignant at the response from the el-Sisi regime's prosecutor who is continuing to thumb his nose at our institutions and our legal system.
    "Today was the umpteenth mockery." Ballerini said the Regenis were now hoping Draghi's intervention could help achieve progress in the case.
    Italy has been trying to notify the four officers of their indictments in order for the case to proceed with their trial in absentia, which ran into a brick wall last year after Cairo refused to help locate them.
    Regeni, whose research topic was a politically sensitive issue, was tortured for days, resulting in "acute physical suffering" by being subjected to kicks, punches, beaten with sticks and bats and cut with sharp objects, and also being burned with red-hot objects and slammed into walls, Rome prosecutors say.
    His neck was then snapped in a fatal blow.
    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 an alleged kidnapping gang that was wiped out after Regeni's 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 last month's new gas deal. (ANSA).