Life term requested for four Egyptian officials in Regeni torture-murder trial

Rome Deputy Chief Prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco presented closing arguments on Tuesday, describing Regeni's death as the result of "cold, methodological, organized violence against a defenceless man." Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University doctoral researcher, disappeared from the Cairo metro on 25 January 2016; his half-naked body was found in a ditch on the Cairo–Alexandria highway on 3 February.

What is being judged here is prolonged torture as an instrument of domination. That man had a name, a face, a story: Giulio Regeni, an Italian citizen, a young researcher. A free man.

The prosecution named National Security General Tariq Sabir and his subordinates Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif as the accused. All four have not attended any hearings after Egypt refused to notify them of the proceedings. Colaiocco said the Egyptian regime "chose to protect the perpetrators" and consciously covered for them.

An Italian autopsy revealed 20 fractures (five to the teeth, fifteen to the skeletal structure), far more than the single arm fracture identified by Egyptian forensic doctors. The prosecution argued that Regeni was tortured repeatedly over the seven days of his detention and died from a final, voluntary act described in the autopsy as "they smashed him." Colaiocco stated that the trial had been a battle "against silence, against false reconstructions, against obstruction" and that without Italian jurisdiction the case would have been tried nowhere.