Follow RT on It’s a case that has gripped Italy and Egypt. Now, a fake documentary has branded murdered Giulio Regeni a spy and suggested the trial of four Egyptian intelligence officers for his killing is bad for Egypt-Italy trade relations.
The mysterious death of Cambridge University researcher Regeni has more twists than the fusilli pasta of his native Italy, and the long-awaited trial of four Egyptian secret service agents accused of his kidnap and murder has been beset by even more drama.
Preliminary hearings in the trial of Tariq Saber, Aser Ibrahim, Hesham Helmi, and Magdi Abd al-Sharif – due to start on Thursday morning after five years of investigation – were brought to an abrupt halt when one of the defence team was forced into quarantine by Covid-19 exposure. A frustrating start, and the trial is now rescheduled for May 25.
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An Egyptian activist holds a poster calling for justice in the case of Giulio Regeni in Cairo, Egypt, April 15, 2016. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
On December 10, Human Rights Day, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry called for international cooperation and an exchange of expertise without “dictation or claim of perfection that hasn’t and will never be attained by any party.” The same day, Rome’s chief prosecutor announced she was charging four ranking Egyptian National Security Agency officers with responsibility for the abduction, torture, and murder of an Italian graduate student, Giulio Regeni, in Cairo in early 2016.
Egypt’s understanding of “cooperation” has been on full display pretty much ever since Regeni’s badly mutilated body was discovered almost five years ago, nine days after he had been “disappeared” in downtown Cairo. On November 30, following a final meeting with visiting Italian prosecutors, Egypt announced it was of