On Monday, the Italian justice ministry said that it has had no response from Egypt over its calls for cooperation in the case of four Egyptian intelligence officers suspected of the the abduction, torture and murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni in Cairo in early 2016.
The trial against the four has been suspended after a Rome court ruled that it could not go ahead because the defendants had not been notified of its existence.
Italy has been trying to notify the four officers of their indictments in order to proceed with their trial in absentia but the efforts ran into a brick wall last year after Cairo refused to help locate them.
“Up to now we have not had any response from the Egyptian authorities in relation to the four defendants,” a justice ministry official told a hearing before a preliminary hearings judge.
“Neither did the Egyptians respond to a request for a meeting that (Justice) Minister Marta Cartabia asked for in January.”
The judge suspended proceedings and scheduled a new hearing for February 13.
“If there were any need, it has been shown once again and with further clarity that the Egyptian authorities do not have, and have never had, any intention to cooperate,” said Regeni’s parents in a statement.
“Today it emerged that Justice Minister Cartabia’s request in January for a meeting with her Egyptian counterpart got no response and this rejection is unprecedented.”
“We hope for a fitting reaction of dignity from our government.”
The four Egyptian officials are National Security General Tariq Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif.
Regeni, a 28-year-old Friuli-born Cambridge University doctoral researcher, was tortured to death while in Egypt to work on research into Cairo street hawkers’ unions.
