Man held for marijuana in Egypt tortured say family

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 9 - The family of a 31-year-old Pescara man who has been held in Egypt for almost a year after being caught while on vacation with a small amount of marijuana for personal use has been tortured, his family said this week voicing the hope that "it will not be another Regeni or Salis case".
    Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University researcher into street unions, was allegedly tortured to death in Cairo in early 2016 while Ilaria Salis, a 29-year-old antifascist elementaty school teacher from Monza, was held in allegedly inhumane conditions for 17 months in Hungary after being put on trial for allegedly attacking neoNazis in Budapest.
    The deputy House whip for the Green/Left Alliance, Marco Grimaldi, filed a parliamentary question on the case of Luigi Giacomo Passeri on Tuesday.
    ""Luigi Giacomo Passeri was arrested in Egypt a year ago on possession of a small dose of marijuana for persona use," Grimaldi said.
    "Since August 28 2023 his family has been unable to have any direct contact with him, while it has emerged that Luigi has suffered torture in prison and has been abandoned without treatment after an operation to remove his appendix.
    "The few letters that the young man has managed to send show a worsening in his psychological condition and the risk of acts of self-harm".
    Grimaldi stressed that "we don't want other Salis cases, and we assuredly don't want another Regeni case, and no energy deal can justify forms of inaction.
    "The Italian embassy in Egypt must guarantee assistance and support and move to make sure a fair and just trial takes place in good time, and the government must mobilise to bring Luigi back to Italy".
    Four Egyptian intelligence officers are on trial in Rome in absentia for Regeni's alleged torture and murder in January-February 2016. (ANSA).