"A very important day."
Thus the parents of
Giulio Regeni
, Claudio and Paola, entering the Rome court on the occasion of the first hearing of the trial against four 007 accused of the kidnapping and murder of the Italian researcher killed in Cairo in 2016. Outside the judicial citadel many people to offer support for family members.
The banner with the words "Truth for Giulio Regeni" was displayed.
The four Egyptian 007s are accused of having kidnapped, tortured and killed Giulio Regeni in January 2016 in Cairo.
A proceeding that could see former prime ministers, former ministers and officials who held top roles in the security services and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time of the dramatic murder appear as witnesses.
The defendants, depending on their positions, are accused of complicity in aggravated bodily harm, aggravated murder and aggravated kidnapping.
At the end of a tortuous judicial process and after the Consulta, last September, had brought the proceedings out of the quagmire in which they had ended up due to the absence of the accused, the Rome magistrate sent General Tariq Sabir to trial, the Colonels Athar Kamal and Uhsam Helmi and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdel Sharif.
The Presidency of the Council was a civil party in the trial and requested, in the event of conviction of the defendants, compensation of 2 million euros.
In the act of civil action, the State Attorney's Office writes that we are in the presence of "a horrendous crime" which "has profoundly affected the national community, due to the incomprehensible motivations and the cruel methods of execution".
"
We have been waiting for this moment for eight years
. We finally hope that the trial can start. The preliminary questions that had already been rejected in all the other courtrooms have been raised: we hope, after the decision of the Consulta which greatly strengthens our position, to be able to have a trial against those who did all the harm in the world to Giulio".
This is what the lawyer Alessandra Ballerini, lawyer together with her colleague Giacomo Satta of Giulio Regeni's parents, states at the end of the first hearing of the trial against 007 Egyptians accused of the kidnapping and murder.
During the trial, a series of objections were raised by the defenders to request the nullity of the decree which orders the judgment which the judges will dissolve on March 18th.
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