In the Regeni trial, four Egyptian intelligence officers are being tried by proxy for the abduction, torture and murder of Italian student, Giulio Regeni, in Cairo in 2016.

The suspension was passed down by the court on the grounds that the four officers could not be located, and were thus not able to be served notice of the proceedings.

National Security General Tariq Sabir and his subordinates, Colonel Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim, Colonel Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif, were on trial at the Court of Assizes in Rome in mid-October, when the presiding judge ruled the trial could not proceed, as the defendants had not been served notice of it.

It is alleged that Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University doctoral researcher, was tortured to death by the four aforementioned officers, due to his politically sensitive research into the Cairo street hawkers’ unions.

Regeni was kicked, punched, beaten with sticks, cut and burned with objects, and slammed into walls, before his neck was snapped in a fatal blow – an ordeal so brutal and dehumanising that his mother has stated she could only recognise him by the tip of his nose.

The deceased’s Friuli-based family appealed to the public for help on April 15, asking for assistance in finding the addresses of the four Egyptian officers involved.

A Facebook post was shared in Italian, English and Arabic by the family’s lawyers, with photos of the four defendants and a caption which read: “Help us find them”.

Though Italy temporarily withdrew its ambassador to Egypt, Regeni’s parents urged Prime Minister Mario Draghi to intervene further, protesting a proposed gas deal with Egypt that is designed to reduce Italy’s reliance on Russian resources due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The examining magistrate has cited Cairo’s complete “refusal to cooperate” as another factor inhibiting proceedings.

In the magistrate’s ruling, the Special Operations Group of the Carabinieri was asked to carry out fresh efforts to track down the four officers.

The next hearing in the case is set for October 10, where the examining magistrate will hear from the head of the Justice Affairs Department, Nicola Russo, about developments in the case.