"We tore him to pieces, we destroyed him." Terrible and dramatic words coming from one of the perpetrators of the torture of Giulio Regeni, the Italian researcher killed in Cairo in January 2016. The story of what happened in those days in the Egyptian capital was given, during the hearing of the trial against four men of the Egyptian security apparatus, by a witness heard in protected mode . A Kenyan citizen who in September 2017 listened in a restaurant in Nairobi to Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdel Sharif, one of the defendants, reveal what was done to Regeni.
"In our country we had the case of an Italian academic - he snatched the witness from Sharif's mouth - who we thought was from the CIA but also from the Mossad. He was a problem, because he was popular among the common people. Finally we caught him: we tore him to pieces, we destroyed him. I hit him."
The witness, answering questions from the deputy prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco, reconstructed in detail what happened that day in the restaurant . At the time of the facts, the Kenyan citizen was a book seller and was in that place to meet a professor from the University of Nairobi who wanted to buy some books. He heard two men next to him talking.
"A Kenyan security official and an Egyptian, who had just gotten off an Egyptian diplomatic vehicle, were sitting there," he said before the judges of the Capital's Assize Court. "They were about two meters apart: there were no tables between us. They started talking about the presidential elections in Kenya, they spoke in English. They spoke of tensions and clashes with the police after the vote against the legitimacy of the voting operations and of the victims that had occurred. They criticized the European Union that was showing solidarity with the protests. The official said that we had to stay put and that without foreign interference the police forces could have repressed the protests 'better'."
A dialogue that went on for 45 minutes. At a certain point the witness heard the Egyptian say: «The European Union is a big problem for us in Egypt», and then added that «in our country we had the case of an Italian academic who we thought was from the CIA or the Mossad. This person was a problem because he was popular among the common people, he interacted with the population in the markets». A problem that had to be 'solved'. «He said - adds the witness - that they took Giulio. “We beat him and 'I hit him. We tore him to pieces, we destroyed him'».
For their part, the judges have given the green light to the acquisition of a series of testimonies from Egyptian citizens who for security reasons will not be able to come to Rome. In the order, the Assize Court writes that there are "numerous objective facts that document how the situation of civil rights in Egypt is widely compromised". The judges cite reports from NGOs, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch from 2024, as well as pronouncements from the European Parliament and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. They also cite the "2024 factsheet from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs which concludes that 'Egypt is a safe country. However, exceptions are considered necessary for political opponents, dissidents, activists and defenders of human rights or for those who may fall within the grounds for persecution, namely for reasons of political opinion... regardless of whether the applicant has translated this opinion, thought or belief into concrete actions".
(Unioneonline/D)