By Crispian Balmer and Marco Roberti
ROME, Sept 28 – An Italian court on Monday convicted three Egyptian security officials in absentia for the 2016 kidnapping of student Giulio Regeni, whose tortured body was found days after his disappearance in Cairo, but dismissed a murder charge against one defendant.
In a ruling read in court, a judge said Major Magdi Sharif of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service, Cairo police investigations chief Colonel Ather Kamal and police Colonel Hisham Helmy were guilty of the “aggravated kidnapping” of Regeni. The judge acquitted Major General Tarek Sabir, the former head of state security, of the same charge and also dismissed the accusation of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder against Sharif. The four have never publicly responded to the accusations, and Egypt has denied any state involvement in Regeni’s death.
The Egyptian embassy in Rome and Egyptian foreign ministry in Cairo did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.
The Rome court said the three men should pay damages to Regeni’s family and the Italian state. Ballerini said the government should demand payment and sever relations with Egypt. Relations between Italy and Egypt deteriorated sharply following the killing, but ties have gradually recovered in recent years despite continuing demands by Regeni’s family and rights groups for accountability.
Italy’s top court later ruled that Egypt’s failure to cooperate should not prevent the case from moving forward, saying a foreign state’s refusal to assist an investigation could not be allowed to block accountability for torture.
