A witness in a Rome trial in absentia
of four Egyptian security officers accused of having kidnapped,
tortured and killed Italian student Giulio Regeni in
January-February 2016 on Tuesday told the court he had heard the
Cambridge University researcher into Cairo street unions
complaining about his treatment in Arabic.
"I heard when Giulio Regeni was being tortured, he complained
and spoke in Arabic," said witness "Delta", heard in 'protected
mode' in the trial of National Security General Tariq Sabir and
his subordinates,
Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Helmi, and Major Magdi
Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif, who are not attending after Egypt
refused to notify them of the proceedings.
"I remember seeing him for the first time in the Dokki police
station, we were both arrested on January 25, 2016. He asked to
be able to speak with a lawyer and with the embassy".
A Palestinian former prisoner in the same Cairo secret police
facility as Regeni said in an Al Jazeera video last month that
he had "seen Giulio blindfolded and exhausted by the torture.
"I saw him again as he was leaving the interrogation, exhausted
by torture. He was between two jailers who were carrying him on
their shoulders. They were taking him back to the cells", he
said.
Regeni, 28, was allegedly tortured to death between January 25
and February 3 2016 after the Egyptian security officers decided
he was a spy, after he was fingered by a the leader of a street
union, a politically sensitive area of the north African
country.
Regeni was tortured so badly that his mother Paola
Deffendi said she could only recognise him "from the tip of his
nose".
Deffendi said "all the evil in the world" was visited on her
son's body.
The Palestinian witness added in the documentary: "He wasn't
naked, he was wearing clothes, dark pants and a white T-shirt. I
saw another prisoner with signs of torture on his back.
"The jailers insisted a lot with the question 'Giulio, where did
you learn to overcome the techniques to face the interrogation'.
"They were nervous, they used electric shocks and tortured him
with electricity."
In addition to the jailers, the witness also said in court,
"there were investigators, officers I had not seen before and a
colonel, a doctor specialized in psychology.
"There was no contact with the outside world: the feeling was
that of being in a tomb. I was kidnapped, detained and then
released without a reason."
Amnesty International has said that Regeni is one of countless
political prisoners that are allegedly 'disappeared' in Egypt
every year.
Regeni's body, according to an Italian autopsy, showed major
signs of extreme torture: contusions and abrasions all over from
a severe beating; extensive bruising from kicks, punches, and
assault with a stick; more than two dozen bone fractures, among
them seven broken ribs, all fingers and toes, as well as legs,
arms, and shoulder blades; multiple stab wounds on the body
including the soles of the feet, possibly from an ice pick or
awl-like instrument; numerous cuts over the entire body made
with a sharp instrument suspected to be a razor; extensive
cigarette burns; a larger burn mark between the shoulder blades
made with a hard and hot object; a brain haemorrhage; and a
broken cervical vertebra, which ultimately caused death.
Egypt has cleared the four officers accused in the case.
Regeni's half-naked body was found in a ditch on the
Cairo-Alexandria highway on February 3, 2016, a week after he
disappeared on the Cairo metro.
At various times Egypt has advanced differing explanations for
his death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff, and
abduction and murder by an alleged kidnapping gang that was
wiped
out after Regeni's documents were planted in their lair.
Lack of cooperation on the case by Egypt led to Rome's
temporarily withdrawing its ambassador from Cairo.
Successive Italian governments have drawn condemnation from
Regeni's parents by continuing to cooperate with Cairo on deals
ranging from migration to oil finds and arms sales including two
Italian-made frigates.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has repeatedly promised
to help Italy get to the truth about the murder.
Italian journalist Corrado Augias returned his Legion d'Honneur
to France after Paris gave Sisi the same honour for services to
relations between the countries.
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