Italian court finds Egyptians guilty of kidnapping, killing student

A Rome court on Monday convicted three Egyptian security officers of kidnapping an Italian student who was tortured and killed a decade ago, in a case that has strained Italy's diplomatic relations with Cairo.

The officers, who were all convicted in absentia, were each given sentences of 10 years in prison, an AFP reporter who was in the courtroom said.

As the verdict was read out, there was silence from Giulio Regeni's family and supporters in court who wore yellow T-shirts and badges -- the colour of their long campaign for justice.

The sentence did not find the three men guilty of murdering the student.

It was the second attempt in Italy to prosecute the national security agents over the brutal murder of 28-year-old Regeni, who was in Cairo conducting research for his doctorate when he was abducted in January 2016.

His badly mutilated body was found nine days later, dumped on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, barely recognisable and bearing extensive signs of torture.

A first trial in 2021 was thrown out by judges because prosecutors had been unable to inform the suspects of the procedures against them.

A ruling by Italy's Constitutional Court in September 2023 allowed the trial to go ahead against four defendants: General Tariq Sabir, Colonels Athar Kamel and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif.

One of the four, Sabir, was acquitted on Monday.

Defence lawyers had unsuccessfully petitioned for the case to be thrown out, arguing that the charges indiscriminately targeted the group without attributing specific acts to each individual.

Obstruction by state

Investigators believe Regeni, a University of Cambridge PhD candidate, was abducted and killed after being mistaken for a foreign spy. 

Regeni had been researching Egyptian trade unions, one of many subjects deemed sensitive by Egyptian authorities.

When his body was discovered, five of Regeni's teeth were broken, 15 bones were fractured and letters had been inscribed into his flesh, according to the family's lawyer.

His mother later said her son had been so badly mutilated that she recognised him only by the "tip of his nose".

Several months after the first trial against the defendants was thrown out in 2021, an Italian parliamentary commission determined that Egypt's security agency was to blame for Regeni's death.

It also accused Egypt's judiciary of acting in an "obstructive and openly hostile manner" by failing to disclose the defendants' whereabouts.

Egypt's public prosecutor cleared all four suspects of responsibility for Regeni's murder in December 2020, dropping the case.

While extradition remains unlikely, the convictions could renew diplomatic tensions between Italy and Egypt.

Italy could now demand that Egypt pay the two million euros ($2.3 million) in damages requested by the Italian government, given that the accused were public servants. 

Italy considers Egypt an important partner in the Middle East but bilateral relations have been strained over the Regeni case.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani was last in Cairo earlier this month, when he met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, to try to expand trade deals.