The second hearing of the trial against four Egyptian 007s accused of the kidnapping and murder of Giulio Regeni, a researcher from Fiumicello killed in Cairo in 2016 in circumstances still unclear, starts again today, Monday 18 March.
During the first hearing of the trial, on February 20th, a series of objections were put forward by the defenders to request the nullity of the decree which orders the judgment which the judges will lift the reservation today.
Diplomacy at the bar
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 parties to the proceedings submitted the list of witnesses to the attention of the judges of the First Court of Assizes, requesting that the current President of the Egyptian Republic, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, also be summoned to Piazzale Clodio.
Renzi also called as a witness
Among the people “mentioned” and on whom the judges will have to express their opinion are also the former prime minister Matteo Renzi and the former foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni. And again: Marco Minniti, former head of the delegated authority for the security of the Republic, the three heads of the secret services who have succeeded one another over time and the then general secretary of the Farnesina, Elisabetta Belloni as well as the CEO of Eni, Claudio Descalzi.
The defendants
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 Judge for the preliminary hearing in Rome decided to postpone it to judgment for General Tariq Sabir, Colonels Athar Kamal and Uhsam Helmi and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdel Sharif.
Civil party
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”.
Meloni in Egypt
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, during the mission to Cairo which sees her engaged with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, declared that, on the Regeni case “Italy will try to obtain something more” to “move forward on the front of legality and justice”. “Italy tends to always raise this question, there is a process underway in Italy and the work we are doing does not change our position on the matter”, clarified Meloni. However, the opinion of the opposition was different, as they loudly requested that the prime minister raise the issue with al-Sisi, but underlined that, from the reports of the Egyptian presidency on the bilateral negotiations between the two, there appears to be no sign of an agreement on the Regeni case.
Giulio's parents
“We are stubbornly present and we want justice.” Thus Claudio and Paola Regeni before entering the court in Rome where today the second hearing of the trial against four Egyptian 007s accused of having kidnapped, tortured and killed Giulio is scheduled. The researcher's parents did not want to make any statements about Prime Minister Meloni's visit to Cairo yesterday. Outside the court there was a solidarity sit-in in which the leaders of the Fnsi also took part.
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