Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister
Antonio Tajani told a press conference with Egyptian counterpart
Sameh Shoukry in Cairo Wednesday that he had informed Egyptian
authorities that a trial of four of their intelligence officers
in the 2016 torture and murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni
would go ahead after a high court ruling to let it proceed
without the foursome being informed they are on trial in
absentia.
He said he had told the authorities of the Constitutional
Court's recent ruling that the contact details and legal abodes
of the four are not needed in order to tell them about the Rome
trial.
"The criminal trial will continue in the search for truth and
justice", he said.
On September 27 the top Italian court ended the stalemate on the
trial in absentia in Italy of the four for torturing to death
the 28-year-old Friuli-born Cambridge University doctoral
researcher in Cairo in early 2016.
The court ruled 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 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 could 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.
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 and Egypt has not cooperated by handing
over their contact details and legal abodes.
Regeni's family said after the court ruling that they had been
right to push for proceedings to go forward and that the
judicial stalemate had been "repugnant".
"We were right: it was repugnant to the common sense of justice
that the trial for the kidnapping, torture and murder of Giulio
could not be held because of the obstructionism of the el-Sisi
dictatorship on whose behalf the four defendants committed these
terrible crimes," stated the Regeni family, through their lawyer
Alessandra Ballerini.
"In fact, as preliminary hearings judge Roberto Ranazzi wrote in
his order, "there is no more unjust trial than the one that
cannot be established by the will of a government authority.
"We had to resist against this dictatorial will for seven and a
half
years while always trusting in the constitutional principles of
our democracy."
"We thank all the people who have supported and will support our
path towards truth and justice: the Rome Public Prosecutor's
Office and in particular prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco, the media
coverage and support, and all the 'yellow people' (campaigners
for Justice for Giulio)."
The trial is expected to start again next year with a
preliminary hearings judge slated to rule before the end of this
year.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
