The mother of Giulio Regeni told a
Rome trial in absentia of four Egyptian security officials
accused of torturing her son to death in January-February 2016
that she had seen the signs of brutality and torture on his
body.
"When I had to recognize Giulio's body I could only see his
face: I saw the brutality, the bestiality, on our son's body,"
Paola Deffendi told the court.
"He was covered by a sheet and I asked to see at least his feet
but a nun told me 'your son is a martyr'. "There I understood
that he had been tortured".
Regeni, 28, a Friuli-born Cambridge University doctoral
researcher into Caito street unions, was allegedly abducted and
tortured to death by National Security General Tariq Sabir and
his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and
Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif, who are not
attending after Egypt refused to notify them of the proceedings.
He was allegedly targeted because of the politically sensitive
nature of his research, after a street seller union chief
fingered him as an alleged spy.
Amnesty International has said that Regeni is one of countless
political prisoners that are allegedly 'disappeared' in Egypt
every year.
Regeni's body, according to an Italian autopsy, showed major
signs of extreme torture: contusions and abrasions all over from
a severe beating; extensive bruising from kicks, punches, and
assault with a stick; more than two dozen bone fractures, among
them seven broken ribs, all fingers and toes, as well as legs,
arms, and shoulder blades; multiple stab wounds on the body
including the soles of the feet, possibly from an ice pick or
awl-like instrument; numerous cuts over the entire body made
with a sharp instrument suspected to be a razor; extensive
cigarette burns; a larger burn mark between the shoulder blades
made with a hard and hot object; a brain haemorrhage; and a
broken cervical vertebra, which ultimately caused death.
Egypt has cleared the four officers accused in the case.
Regeni's half-naked body was found in a ditch on the
Cairo-Alexandria highway on February 3, 2016, a week after he
disappeared on the Cairo metro on January 25.
At various times Egypt has advanced differing explanations for
his death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff, and
abduction and murder by an alleged kidnapping gang that was
wiped out after Regeni's documents were allegedly planted in
their lair.
Lack of cooperation on the case by Egypt led to Rome's
temporarily withdrawing its ambassador from Cairo.
Successive Italian governments have drawn condemnation from
Regeni's parents by continuing to cooperate with Cairo on deals
ranging from migration to oil finds and arms sales including two
Italian-made frigates.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has repeatedly promised
to help Italy get to the truth about the murder.
Italian journalist Corrado Augias returned his Legion d'Honneur
to France after Paris gave Sisi the same honour for services to
relations between the countries.
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