Light needs to be shed on the responsibilities of the principals and not just of the material executors in the kidnapping, torture and murder of Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni in Cairo in 2016, centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein said on Tuesday.
"Today is another important day in the battle for truth and justice for Giulio Regeni, with a new hearing that stems from the determination of the family and those who have accompanied this battle," said Schlein of the opening in Rome of the trial of four Egyptian intelligence officers accused of the crime.
"We continue to stand alongside the family in the demand for truth and justice, also through the presence of our lawyers with a media escort" at the courthouse in Piazzale Clodio, he sheadded.
Schlein highlighted the "clear will" on the part of the Egyptiangovernment "not to cooperate and to throw off track and try to prevent this trial from taking place".
"Instead, we must piece together the responsibilities not only of the material executors but also of the principals. We want the full truth, not just a half-truth," she concluded.
The four Egyptian security officials, National Security GeneralTariq Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel MohamedIbrahim and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif, have been put on trial in absentia after Cairo long stonewalledthe case and refused to give their addresses or contact numbers.
This caused a long delay, when ended in September when the Constitutional Court ruled that the trial could proceed even though the officers have not been formally notified of the proceedings against them.
Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University doctoral researcher into independent Egyptian trade unions, disappeared on the Cairometro on January 25, 2016 and his mutilated, semi-naked body was found in a ditch on the road to Alexandria on February 3. His torture
and murder sparked global outrage, with more than 4,600 academics signing a petition calling for an investigation into his death and into the many disappearances that take place in Egypt each month.
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