Italian prosecutors have requested a life sentence for an Egyptian security officer and long prison terms for three other Egyptian officials over the 2016 abduction, torture, and killing of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni in Cairo, in a case that strained relations between Egypt and Italy.
The prosecution requested a life sentence for Major Magdy Sharif, who was a captain at the time of Regeni’s death and whom prosecutors identified as the direct perpetrator of the killing. It also requested 17 years and six months in prison for Major General Aser Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim, Colonel Hossam Helmy, and Major General Tarek Saber.
All four officers, tried in Rome in absentia, face charges of aggravated kidnapping. Sharif also faces charges related to aggravated bodily harm and aggravated murder.
Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University PhD student, disappeared in Cairo on January 25, 2016, while researching independent trade unions in Egypt. His body was found a week later on the Cairo-Alexandria desert road bearing signs of torture.
During a seven-hour session, prosecutors presented their closing arguments after a decade-long investigation, accusing Egyptian authorities of withholding evidence and providing misleading information during the probe, according to ANSA news agency.
“Giulio was not a spy,” Deputy Prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco told the court during his summation, adding that Regeni was killed after Egyptian security authorities mistakenly perceived him as a threat.
Colaiocco presented details of the 10-year long investigation, including “misleading evidence and evidence hidden by Cairo authorities.”
Prosecutors described the defendants as “high-ranking state officials who fully understood their institutional duties, but used their authority to carry out cold and organized violence against a defenseless man.”
During the hearing, prosecutors presented CT scans and autopsy images of Regeni’s body, highlighting differences between Egyptian and Italian forensic reports. Prosecutors noted that while the Egyptian report recorded only a single fracture in Regeni’s right arm, Italian examinations documented 20 fractures, including five to his teeth and 15 to his bones.
Colaiocco told the court that Regeni did not die from the accumulated injuries alone, but from a final fatal blow delivered by his captors. He described the abuse as a systematic attempt to break Regeni’s will and strip him of his basic rights.
The trial, which began in 2021, was suspended after the court ruled that it could not confirm the defendants had been properly notified of the proceedings. Italy’s Constitutional Court overturned that decision in September 2023, allowing proceedings to resume, with a new trial beginning in February 2024.
The court is expected to hear defense arguments on July 13 and 14, with a verdict not expected before September after the summer recess.
Egypt has consistently rejected the legitimacy of the trial and continues to deny any involvement by its security officials in Regeni’s death.
Although Cairo and Rome initially conducted a joint investigation, their findings diverged sharply after Italian prosecutors implicated Egyptian security forces.
Egypt closed its own inquiry in 2020, dismissing the allegations as groundless, though it stated it understood Italy’s decision to proceed independently.
