The trial is set to commence on February 20, 2024.
The defendants must answer for a range of charges including conspiracy to commit aggravated bodily harm, aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping.
Earlier on Monday the same judge accepted the prime minister’s office’s request to be admitted as a civil plaintiff in the criminal case.
The move became possible after the Constitutional Court ended a stalemate in September by ruling that it could proceed even though the officers have not been informed of the proceedings against them, as Cairo has refused to cooperate on the case.
Rome Prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco said Monday the fact that the four Egyptian security officials are unlikely to be at their trial will not mean the proceedings are merely a show.
“The absence of the defendants will not reduce the trial to a simulacrum,” Colaiocco told a Rome court as he requested the officials be indicted.
“Being able to publicly reconstruct the events and individual responsibilities in a criminal trial is to a constitutional, supranational obligation.
“It is an obligation that the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office has proudly tried to fulfil with total conviction since the beginning of the investigation.”
ANSA
