Three Egyptian officials convicted of kidnapping Giulio Regeni

In a first-instance ruling on 28 September, a Rome court found Usham Helmi, Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif guilty of aggravated kidnapping. Each was sentenced to 10 years in prison. A fourth defendant, Tariq Sabir, was acquitted. All four were tried in absentia and had denied the charges. [1] [3] [4]

Regeni, 28, was a Cambridge University doctoral student researching Egypt’s independent trade unions. He disappeared in Cairo on 25 January 2016, and his body was found near the city on 3 February. An autopsy found that he had been tortured. [1] [6]

The convictions concern Regeni’s abduction, not his killing. The court dismissed a charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder against Sharif. Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for him and sentences of 17 years and six months for each of the other three defendants. [2] [4]