Italy accuses 4 Egypt officers of ‘aggravated kidnap’ of Giulio Regeni

The Italian public prosecutor has announced the conclusion of the investigation into the murder of Giulio Regeni.

Regeni, 28, was a Cambridge University doctoral researcher carrying out research into independent trade unions when he disappeared in Cairo four years ago. His body was later found with severe torture marks

Italy’s public prosecutor has accused four Egyptian officers of kidnapping, torture and murder.

According to the rights group We Record, the officers are Tariq Saber, Hosam Helmi, Aser Kamel Ibrahim and Magdy Ibrahim Sherif.

All four officers were accused of taking part in the “aggravated kidnapping” of Regeni. Sherif has been accused of grievous bodily harm and murder.

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Charges were dropped against a fifth security official and former suspect, Mahmoud Nejm.

The public prosecutor has given the four accused officers 20 days to respond to the accusations by submitting a statement or asking to be heard in the case and a judge will then decide whether or not a trial will go ahead.

This is “an extremely important result”, said Rome’s chief prosecutor, Michele Prestipino at an Italian parliamentary commission yesterday. “Prosecutors did everything they could to investigate. We owed it to Giulio’s memory.”

Egypt has refused to cooperate with the investigation. At the beginning of this month, it announced it was temporarily ending the investigation claiming that Egypt’s prosecution had evidence a criminal gang carried out the murder after robbing Regeni.

It said that the gang, whose identity they do not yet know, have carried out similar crimes against Egyptian and foreign nationals and used false documents linking them to the security apparatus.

Egypt’s public prosecutor says there is insufficient evidence to bring the case to trial.