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.
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