No immunity for torture says top court in Regeni ruling

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 26 - There can be no domestic, European or international immunity for torture, Italy's Constitutional Court said Thursday in explaining its recent decision to free up the trial in absentia in Rome of four Egyptian security officers for torturing to death Italian student Giulio Regeni in Cairo in early 2016.
    The top court came out against any immunity stemming from the impossibility of personally notifying the defendants of the start of proceedings against them because of a lack of cooperation from Egypt.
    "It is not acceptable, under domestic, European and international constitutional law, the indefinite paralysis of the trial for crimes of torture committed by public agents, as would result from the impossibility of personally notifying the defendant of the acts of initiation of the trial due to the lack of cooperation of the State of his nationality," the explanation of the sentence said.
    On September 27 the Constitutional Court ended a stalemate on the trial, ruling that the trial could proceed even though the officers have not been informed of the proceedings against them, as Cairo has refused to cooperate on the case.
    Regeni, a 28-year-old Friuli born Cambridge University doctoral researcher into Cairo street seller unions, was tortured to death in Egypt between January 25 and February 3 2016.
    His work on Egyptian trade unions was politically sensitive and his body was so badly mutilated his mother only recognised him by the tip of his nose.
    A Rome judge had asked the Constitutional Court to rule on whether the trial can proceed without the presence of the four Egyptian security agents who have been charged in Italy with his murder and without any proof that they know they are on trial.
    Despite multiple verbal pledges from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian authorities have not cooperated with Italian efforts to formally notify the suspects that they are on trial, which had prevented proceedings moving forward.
    Efforts to notify the four officers - National Security General Tariq Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif - have been unsuccessful since Egypt has not cooperated by handing over their contact details and legal abodes. (ANSA).