Italian Court Convicts Three Egyptians in Regeni Case

An Italian court on Monday convicted three Egyptian security officials in absentia over the 2016 kidnapping of Italian student Giulio Regeni in Cairo. The three men — Major Magdi Sharif, Colonel Ather Kamal and Colonel Hisham Helmy — were each sentenced to 10 years in prison. A fourth defendant, Major General Tarek Sabir, was acquitted.

Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University postgraduate student, disappeared in Cairo on January 25, 2016. His body was found almost a week later, and a post-mortem examination showed that he had suffered extensive torture. Egypt has denied state involvement and blamed criminals for his death, while Italian prosecutors argued that Regeni was abducted and tortured by Egyptian security officials because of his research into independent trade unions.

The verdict comes after years of strained relations between Italy and Egypt and what Italian prosecutors described as limited cooperation from Egyptian authorities. The defendants remain outside Italy, making extradition highly unlikely. The court also ordered the convicted men to pay damages to Regeni’s family and the Italian state.

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