Italian Court Convicts Three Egyptians Over Regeni Kidnapping, Acquits Fourth

ROME: An Italian court has convicted three Egyptian security officials over their involvement in the 2016 kidnapping of Italian student Giulio Regeni and sentenced each of them to 10 years in prison. A fourth Egyptian defendant was acquitted.

The three convicted officials were identified as Major Magdi Sharif of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service, police Colonel Hisham Helmy and Colonel Ather Kamal, a former Cairo investigations chief. The court found them guilty of aggravated kidnapping.

The court acquitted Major General Tarek Sabir, the former head of state security, of the kidnapping charge. It also dismissed a separate allegation of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder against Sharif.

Regeni, a 28-year-old postgraduate researcher at Britain’s University of Cambridge, disappeared in Cairo on January 25, 2016. His body was discovered almost a week later, and an autopsy found evidence of extensive torture before his death.

The four defendants were tried in absentia because they remained in Egypt and were not extradited to Italy. Italian authorities have said repeated efforts to obtain information about their whereabouts did not produce cooperation from Egyptian authorities.

Egypt has denied state involvement in Regeni’s death. Egyptian authorities have maintained that members of a criminal gang were responsible, while Italian prosecutors have argued that Egyptian security officials abducted and tortured Regeni in connection with his research into independent trade unions.

Rome Chief Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi said the verdict was reached despite what he described as less than wholehearted cooperation from Egyptian authorities. The case has significantly strained relations between Italy and Egypt since Regeni’s death.