There were "clear" signs of torture
on the body of Giulio Regeni, the Italian student tortured to
death in Egypt in January-February 2016, former Italian
ambassador to Cairo Maurizio Massari told a Rome trial in
absentia of four Egyptian intelligence officers Tuesday.
"I personally went to the morgue where Giuli'0s body was being
held," Massari told the trial of National Security General Tariq
Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim
and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif.
"There were clear signs of torture, of blows received over all
the body with bruises and signs of fractures and cuts."
Cambridge University doctoral researcher into independent
Egyptian trade unions Regeni, 28, from a small town near Udine
in northeastern Italy, was tortured so badly that his mother
Paola Deffendi said 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 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.
Regeni, 28, is believed to have been killed due to the
politically sensitive nature of his research for the British
university, into independent street vendor trade unions.
One of the union chiefs reportedly fingered him as spy.
He was tortured to death between January 25 and February 3 2016.
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