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.
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