3 Egyptian officers sentenced to 10 years for Regeni abduction
A Rome court on Monday sentenced three Egyptian officers in absentia to 10 years in prison for the 2016 abduction and detention of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni. A fourth defendant was acquitted and the charge of premeditated murder was dismissed due to insufficient evidence.
The verdict was announced after closed deliberations by the court panel lasting about eight hours. Major Magdy Ibrahim Abdel Aal Sharif, Colonel Hossam Helmy and Colonel Asser Kamel Mohamed were convicted on the charge of aggravated kidnapping. Major General Tarek Saber was acquitted of all charges, according to a report by the Italian news agency ANSA.
The court did not grant the requests made by the Italian public prosecution in its closing arguments last June, when it sought a life sentence for Major Magdy Sharif as the “material perpetrator of the murder” and 17 years and six months in prison for the other three officers.
However, despite dismissing the murder charge, the court established in its preliminary grounds, according to the report, the responsibility of the Egyptian security apparatus for forcibly abducting Regeni on Jan. 25, 2016, from downtown Cairo and detaining him inside an intelligence-affiliated headquarters, which the ANSA report described as a “villa on the outskirts of the capital.”
The court ruled that evidence gathered by Italian prosecutors was insufficient to directly link the primary defendant, Magdy Sharif, to premeditated murder and excessive torture. Italian prosecutors explicitly blamed this lack of evidence on “Egypt’s wall of silence” and the absence of effective judicial cooperation by Cairo authorities.
The court further ordered the three convicted men to immediately pay interim compensation of 200,000 euros to each of Regeni’s parents and 100,000 euros to his sister Irene, in addition to a 150,000-euro fine to the Italian government.
During the prosecution’s presentation in June, Italian prosecutors displayed CT scans and autopsy photos of Regeni’s body, noting that Egypt’s forensic report recorded only a single fracture in his right arm. In contrast, Italian examinations documented 15 broken bones and five broken teeth, according to rights website Articolo 21.
As for the cause of death, the Italian public prosecution representative affirmed that Regeni did not die due to the sum of injuries despite their severity, but rather perished as a result of a final fatal blow dealt by the kidnappers to end his life, describing what the researcher was subjected to as “the methodical, cold, organized exercise of violence against a defenseless man.”
According to ANSA, the Italian prosecution still has the opportunity to appeal the ruling to demand a heavier sentence, but it is awaiting the court’s reasoning, scheduled to be filed within 90 days, to determine its stance on the appeal.
Following the ruling, the Italian agency quoted Regeni family lawyer Alessandra Ballerini as saying, “It is clear that we need to review the reasons, but today we know that our faith in justice has been well placed. From today, all citizens of the world can feel safer.”
Meanwhile, Rome Chief Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi considered that the conviction meant that “the substantial part of the prosecution’s case has held up,” stressing that the ruling represents judicial acknowledgment that the violations committed against Regeni were “carried out by individuals linked to the Egyptian state.”
Deputy Prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco, who has managed the case file since 2016, called it a “historic” ruling that confirms the prosecution’s reconstruction.
The ruling sparked political reactions across Italy, prompting opposition Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein, who attended the hearing in solidarity with the family, to demand action from Giorgia Meloni’s government. Schlein hailed the decision as “a landmark ruling” convicting three Egyptian intelligence officers of kidnapping and torture, declaring that “after 10 years of fighting for the truth, justice has finally arrived” and that “no one will ever again be able to deny the Egyptian regime’s responsibility.”
Green and Left Alliance leader Nicola Fratoianni called on Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani to “return to Cairo and secure the handover of those responsible for the kidnapping, and demand cooperation with our magistrates that has been lacking for 10 years.”
Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi stated that Egypt’s political responsibility is obvious, pointing out that successive Italian governments under Giuseppe Conte, Mario Draghi, and currently Giorgia Meloni nevertheless moved to normalize relations with Cairo.
Cairo has persistently refused to recognize the legitimacy of the trial and continues to deny the involvement of security officials in the murder of the researcher, whose body was found dumped on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road bearing signs of torture.
Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University PhD student, disappeared while in Cairo to conduct research on the role of independent trade unions in Egypt on Jan. 25, 2016, on the fifth anniversary of the January 25 Revolution, and his body was found bearing signs of torture a week later.
After his case erupted, Egyptian police killed five people whom they claimed were Regeni’s killers, before retracting this narrative.
Initially, the Italian and Egyptian public prosecutions jointly investigated Regeni’s murder, but their conclusions diverged sharply, especially after the Egyptian Public Prosecution decided in November 2020 to close the investigation into the murder, expressing reservations regarding the Italian prosecution’s suspicion of Egyptian officers’ involvement in his killing.