![Documenti di Giulio Regeni](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Documenti_di_Giulio_Regeni.jpg)
Giulio Regeni (; 15 January 1988
– 25 January 2016) was an Italian
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
graduate who was abducted and tortured to death in
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
. Regeni was a
PhD student at
Girton College, Cambridge
Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status ...
, researching Egypt's independent trade unions, and a former employee of the international consulting firm
Oxford Analytica
Oxford Analytica is an international consulting firm providing strategic analysis of world events. It was founded in 1975 by David Young, an American employee of the National Security Council during the Nixon administration.
Clients of Oxford A ...
. He grew up in
Fiumicello
Fiumicello ( fur, Flumisel, sl, Rečica) is a ''frazione'' of Fiumicello Villa Vicentina in the Province of Udine in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of Trieste and about southeast of Udine.
Fiumicello borde ...
, a former
comune
The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...
(now
Fiumicello Villa Vicentina
Fiumicello Villa Vicentina ( fur, Flumisel Vile Visintine) is a ''comune'' in the Province of Udine in the Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or ...
) in the
province of Udine
The province of Udine ( it, provincia di Udine, fur, provincie di Udin, sl, videmska pokrajina, Resian dialect, Resian: , german: Provinz Weiden) was a Provinces of Italy, province in the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia of Italy, borderi ...
in northeastern Italy.
Discovery of the body
Regeni's mutilated and half-naked
corpse
A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body that is used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Stu ...
was found in a ditch alongside the
Cairo-Alexandria highway on the outskirts of
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
on 3 February 2016. His recovered body showed signs of extreme torture:
contusion
A bruise, also known as a contusion, is a type of hematoma of tissue, the most common cause being capillaries damaged by trauma, causing localized bleeding that extravasates into the surrounding interstitial tissues. Most bruises occur close ...
s 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
Cigarette burns are usually deliberate injuries caused by pressing a lit cigarette to the skin. They are a common form of child abuse and torture
Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons suc ...
; a larger burn mark between the shoulder blades made with a hard and hot object; a
brain hemorrhage
Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...
; and a broken
cervical vertebra
In tetrapods, cervical vertebrae (singular: vertebra) are the vertebrae of the neck, immediately below the skull. Truncal vertebrae (divided into thoracic and lumbar vertebrae in mammals) lie caudal (toward the tail) of cervical vertebrae. In sau ...
, which ultimately caused death.
Investigations
Italian and Egyptian officials conducted separate autopsies on Regeni's corpse with an Egyptian forensic official reporting on 1 March 2016, that he was interrogated and tortured for up to seven days at intervals of 1014 hours before he was finally killed. The Egyptian autopsy findings have still not been made public. A 300-page report of the Italian autopsy findings has been handed over to the public prosecutor's office in Rome and denies earlier reports of signs of electric shocks administered to Regeni's genitals.
On 24 March 2016, Egyptian police killed four men in a shoot out, who were allegedly responsible for kidnapping Regeni. According to a Facebook post from the official page of the Ministry of the Interior, the gang specialized in kidnapping foreigners and stealing their money. In a raid on the flat of one of the gang members, the Egyptian police claim they found various items that belonged to Regeni including his passport and student photo IDs. However, witnesses told
Declan Walsh
Declan Walsh (born 1989) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who played for Malin GAA, Malin (the northernmost GAA club in Ireland) and the Donegal county football team, Donegal county team.
He was part of the Donegal team that won the 2012 All-Irel ...
and other journalists that the "gang" members had been executed, not shot while riding in the van: "One was shot as he ran, his corpse later positioned inside the van". Their link to Regeni was also suspect: "Italian investigators used phone records to show that the supposed gang leader, Tarek Abdel Fattah, was 60 miles north of Cairo the day he supposedly kidnapped Regeni", according to Declan Walsh.
The New Cairo prosecutor's office later denied that the criminal gang was involved in his murder.
Regeni's passport and the other documents were handed over to Italian prosecutors on 1 November, same year, during a "positive" meeting in Cairo.
On 8 June 2016, Italian news agency
ANSA
Ansa (Latin for "handle") or ANSA may refer to:
Organizations
* Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, Italian news agency
** Ansa Mediterranean or ANSAmed, section of the above
* Applied Neuroscience Society of Australasia
* Association of Norw ...
reported that Regeni's tutors at Cambridge University had declined to collaborate with the inquest into his murder, to the disappointment of investigators and Regeni's family. This had been anticipated by coverage in the Italian weekly ''
L'Espresso
''L'Espresso'' () is an Italian weekly news magazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies; the other is ''Panorama''. Since 2022 it has been published by BFC Media.
History and profile
One of Italy's foremost newsmagazines, ''l ...
'' on 7 June 2016, which reported that Regeni's tutor Maha Abdelrahman had followed advice from University lawyers not to collaborate with the inquest. The University of Cambridge strongly rejected the claims in a statement released to Varsity, the Cambridge student newspaper. Despite commitment on behalf of Cambridge University, as of early December 2017, British authorities had denied requests by the Italian prosecutors concerning the interrogation of specific individuals in Britain; on a similar note, Abdelrahman had refused to speak to the Italian prosecutor.
Such British inaction in the aftermath of the incident would be later described by Cambridge MP
Daniel Zeichner
Daniel Stephen Zeichner (born 9 November 1956) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Cambridge since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, he defeated Liberal Democrat Julian Huppert before retaining his seat ...
as "lack of tenacity". Following the controversy that played out in the media, Abdelrahman eventually agreed to be questioned by Italian authorities and received praises from the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs for having chosen to cooperate.
In November 2020, Italian magistrates concluded the investigation into Regeni's torture and murder, charging five Egyptian security officials as suspects in the case. The officials were set to face their trial in Italy. The investigation found that Regeni was tortured and murdered by the officials after his doctoral research led them to suspect him of being a spy.
In October 2021, the trial of the four Egyptian police officers opened in Rome in their absence. They are accused of being behind the murder of Giulio Regeni.
Accusations against Egyptian officials
Due to Regeni's research activities and left-wing political leanings, the Egyptian police is strongly suspected of involvement in his murder in Egypt, although Egypt's media and government deny this, alleging secret undercover agents belonging to the
Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood ( ar, جماعة الاخوان المسلمين ''jamāʿat /al-ikhwan/el-ekhwan al-muslimīn'', ) is a Sunni Islamist religious, political, and social movement,Eric Trager,The Unbreakable Muslim Brotherhood", ...
carried out the crime in order to embarrass the Egyptian government and destabilize relations between Italy and Egypt.
On 21 April 2016, Reuters reported three Egyptian intelligence officials and three police sources independently claiming Regeni was in police custody at some time before his death. According to these sources he was picked up by plainclothes police officers near Gamal Abdel Nasser metro station together with another Egyptian man on the evening of 25 January. Both men were then taken in a white minibus with police license plates to Izbakiya police station in downtown Cairo.
Shadowing foreigners was later dismissed by a Homeland Security official and the Interior Ministry as day-to-day work bearing no implications,
and Egyptian general prosecutor Nabeel Sadek confirmed that Cairo police had received a report on Regeni on 7 January 2016,
and that the Egyptian
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
had been monitoring Regeni.
''
L'Espresso
''L'Espresso'' () is an Italian weekly news magazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies; the other is ''Panorama''. Since 2022 it has been published by BFC Media.
History and profile
One of Italy's foremost newsmagazines, ''l ...
'' linked Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi; (born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has served as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. Before retiring as a general in the Egyptian mil ...
's son
Mahmoud to Regeni's murder, stating that "It is hard to think that el-Sisi's son was not aware of Regeni's movements before he disappeared."
On 7 December 2016, a joint statement of Egyptian and Italian prosecutors, released following a two-day summit in Rome, stated that Egyptian prosecutors had questioned the policemen who investigated Regeni's death in January, as well as those who killed the four gang members in March.
On 15 August 2017, journalist
Declan Walsh
Declan Walsh (born 1989) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who played for Malin GAA, Malin (the northernmost GAA club in Ireland) and the Donegal county football team, Donegal county team.
He was part of the Donegal team that won the 2012 All-Irel ...
published in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' the statement of an anonymous
Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
administration official who revealed that, in the weeks after Regeni's death, the United States acquired "explosive proof that Egyptian security officials had abducted, tortured and killed Regeni" and that "Egypt's leadership was fully aware of the
eathcircumstances".
Walsh writes that Italian investigators working in Egypt "were hindered at every turn. Witnesses appeared to have been coached. Surveillance footage from the subway station near Regeni’s apartment had been deleted; requests for metadata from millions of phone calls were refused on the grounds that it would compromise the constitutional rights of Egyptian citizens."
After the article, the Italian government denied that the Americans provided any actionable proof;
AISE
The Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna (AISE; Italian: ''External Intelligence and Security Agency'') is the foreign intelligence service of Italy.
AISE was established in 2007 to replace the Military Intelligence and Security Service ...
told the hint from the USA was of little benefit, since it came when the autopsy and investigation had already persuaded Italian investigators of Egypt's involvement, and Americans refused to reveal anything more specific, like names of involved people or institutions.
On 21 December 2017, the Italian investigators led by Giuseppe Pignatone flew to Cairo to meet the Egyptian prosecutor Nabel Sadek and his team. The Egyptian team submitted new reports, including the progress on the recovery of surveillance cameras footage. The Italians had carefully examined and cross linked all the evidence available to them until then, and provided a detailed explanation for the facts.
For the kidnapping, they reiterated and pinpointed the allegations against major
Majdi Ibrahim Abdel-Al Sharif, captain Osan Helmy, and three other people of Egyptian National Security Agency. For the red herring, which included the killings on 24 March 2016, they blamed captain Mahmud Hendy and other people of the local police.
A witness spoke in May 2019 and said that he was in a cafe in
Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...
, the capital of
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
, in August 2017, where he heard Egyptian officials discussing the "Italian guy" case. After spying on an exchange of business cards, he heard that the officer who claimed to have been personally involved in Regeni's kidnapping and death was, in fact, Major Majdi Ibrahim Abdel-Al Sharif, 35 years old. According to the eyewitness account, they believed Regeni was a British spy and that the officer said he had to hit and slap Regeni after loading him into the police van. The Italian investigators listened to the witness and credited his reconstruction of the events with some reliability. In fact, the Major was already among the suspects.
In December 2020, four agents of the
Egyptian National Security Agency (NSA)— Major Madgi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif, Major General Tariq Sabir, Colonel Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Colonel Uhsam Helmi — were charged by Italian prosecutors with the “aggravated kidnapping” of Regeni. Besides, Major Sharif was also charged with “conspiracy to commit aggravated murder”. In May 2021, an Italian judge, Pier Luigi Balestrieri ordered a trial, which was the ultimate resort for the Italian authorities, to begin in October 2021. It was ruled that they will be tried by the prosecutors in Italy on charges of torturing, kidnapping and murdering Regeni.
However, on 14 October 2021 the Third
Court of Assizes
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordanc ...
of
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
invalidated the trial, stating that the three NSA agents had not been notified about their charges and that, therefore, the trial could not begin. The case, therefore, returned to the Judge of the Preliminary Hearing.
Reactions of the international community
![Striscione Verità per Giulio Regeni esposto da Comune di Torino](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Striscione_Verit%C3%A0_per_Giulio_Regeni_esposto_da_Comune_di_Torino.jpg)
Regeni's torture and murder sparked global outrage, with more than 4,600 academics signing a petition calling for an investigation into his death and into the many disappearances that take place in Egypt each month, while on 24 February 2016,
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
Italy launched a campaign called ''Verità per Giulio Regeni'' ("Truth for Giulio Regeni").
UK Parliament petition No. 120832 was created by Hannah Waddilove, a former colleague of Giulio Regeni's at Oxford Analytica, in February 2016. UK involvement was solicited on the rationale that freedom of thought, expression, and press are not meaningful if they cannot be backed by
freedom of research. Hence active steps were expected from the UK in order to protect operations carried out by personnel belonging to its universities. The petition reached 10,000 signatures next April, the Parliament renewed their offer of assistance. An online petition was also started on
Change.org
Change.org is a worldwide nonprofit petition website, based in California, US, operated by the San Francisco-based company of the same name, which has over 400 million users and offers the public the ability to promote the petitions they care abo ...
that received more than 100,000 signatures.
On 10 March 2016, the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
in Strasbourg passed a motion for a resolution condemning Regeni's torture and killing and the ongoing human rights abuses of the
al-Sisi government in Egypt. The resolution was passed with an overwhelming majority.
In April 2016, Italy recalled its ambassador to Egypt due to a lack of co-operation, during the investigation, from the Egyptian authorities. On 14 April, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', in an editorial, attacked France harshly, calling the silence in the face of Italy's requests to put pressure on Egypt "shameful".
In May 2016, Italian weekly magazine ''
L'Espresso
''L'Espresso'' () is an Italian weekly news magazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies; the other is ''Panorama''. Since 2022 it has been published by BFC Media.
History and profile
One of Italy's foremost newsmagazines, ''l ...
'' set up a secure platform based on
GlobaLeaks
GlobaLeaks is an open-source, free software intended to enable secure and anonymous whistleblowing initiatives.
History
The project started on 15 December 2010 and the first software prototype was announced on 6 September 2011.
Relevant figure ...
technology to collect testimonials about torture and human rights abuse from Egyptian whistleblowers – and to seek justice for Regeni and for other murder victims in Egypt.
On 25 January 2017, the first anniversary of his disappearance, thousands of people gathered to remember Regeni in Rome, Milan, Fiumicello, and other Italian towns.
On 1 May 2017,
Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
said that the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
was taking steps to investigate the situation: "The Holy See has taken some steps. I will not say how or where, but we have taken some steps".
From 2016, al-Sisi had promised Regeni's parents his personal involvement to establish the truth on the murder of their son, but three years later, Paola and Claudio Regeni published a hard reply. "We cannot be satisfied by your condolences anymore, nor by your failed promises", they said.
See also
*
Majdi Ibrahim Abdel-Al Sharif
*
Detention of Patrick Zaki
*
Academic Freedom in the Middle East Academic freedom in the Middle East is a contested and debated issue, which has caught regional and international attention. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, in general, the authoritarian regimes have all showed a certain degree o ...
*
Ibrahim Metwaly Ibrahim Metwaly Hegazy is an Egyptian lawyer and human rights activist and a member of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms. In September 2017, Metwaly was detained by the Egyptian security services. He had been investigating the death in ...
*
List of solved missing persons cases
Lists of solved missing person cases include:
* List of solved missing person cases: pre-2000
* List of solved missing person cases: post-2000
See also
* List of kidnappings
* List of murder convictions without a body
* List of people who di ...
*
List of unsolved murders
These lists of unsolved murders include notable cases where victims were murdered in unknown circumstances.
* List of unsolved murders (before 1900)
* List of unsolved murders (1900–1979)
* List of unsolved murders (1980–1999)
* List of unsol ...
References
Bibliography
*
*
Filmography
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Regeni, Giulio
2016 deaths
Deaths by person in Africa
Diplomatic incidents
Formerly missing people
Human rights abuses in Egypt
Italian torture victims
Male murder victims
Missing person cases in Egypt
Unsolved murders in Egypt
People educated at a United World College