Rome court hands 10-year terms to three Egyptians in Regeni abduction case
Three Egyptian security officials were sentenced to 10 years in Rome over Giulio Regeni's 2016 abduction, while a fourth was acquitted.
A court in Rome on Monday sentenced three Egyptian security officials to 10 years in prison for their role in the abduction of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni in Cairo, delivering the most consequential judicial outcome yet in a case that has strained ties between Italy and Egypt for nearly a decade.
The defendants — Hisham Helmi, Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif — were convicted on charges related to Regeni's kidnapping. A fourth, Tariq Sabir, was acquitted. Sharif had also faced charges connected to Regeni's injuries and death, but the court did not convict him on those counts.
Regeni, a 28-year-old doctoral candidate at the University of Cambridge, vanished in the Egyptian capital on January 25, 2016, while researching independent trade unions. His body was discovered nine days later on the city's outskirts, showing signs of extensive torture, according to Italian investigators.
Speaking after the verdict, Rome's chief prosecutor, Francesco Lo Voi, said the outcome had been secured despite what he characterised as a lack of meaningful cooperation from Egyptian authorities. "We are satisfied for having brought the case out of the quagmire into which it had risked sinking," he told reporters.
Italian prosecutors have long maintained that members of Egypt's security services abducted, detained, tortured and killed Regeni. Egyptian authorities have consistently denied any state involvement and have disputed the conclusions of the Italian investigation.
The proceedings were repeatedly delayed because the defendants remained in Egypt and never appeared in an Italian courtroom. Italy's Constitutional Court eventually cleared the way for the trial to proceed in absentia, allowing hearings to begin in Rome despite disputes over whether the accused had been properly notified.
In June, prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Sharif, whom they identified as the person who physically carried out the killing, along with prison terms of 17 years and six months for Sabir, Helmi and Ibrahim.
For Regeni's family, the case became a decade-long campaign for accountability. Their calls for "truth and justice" resonated widely across Italy, where yellow banners bearing his name became a familiar symbol of solidarity and of the demand for answers.
The investigation was marked by years of friction over evidence and judicial cooperation. Italian magistrates accused Egyptian authorities of withholding key information sought through international legal channels, an allegation Cairo rejected.
Monday's ruling stands as the most significant judicial milestone in a case that has repeatedly tested relations between the two countries and drawn international attention to human rights concerns in Egypt.