Content Note: This article contains references to state-enforced “disappearances”
Egypt’s public prosecutor Hamada al-Sawy has cleared four Egyptian security officials of involvement in the murder of former Cambridge doctorate student Giulio Regeni, as of yesterday (30/12).
The security officials – Tariq Saber, Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim, Capt Uhsam Helmi and Maj Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif – were indicted by Italian prosecutors earlier this month for alleged responsibility in the abduction, torture and murder of Regeni.
Regeni had moved to Cairo in September 2015 to conduct research for a doctoral thesis on independent trade unions, but disappeared on 25th January 2016, and was subsequently found dead nine days later on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, with his body showing “signs of torture” according to state paper
The University released a statement this week (14/12) defending Dr Maha Abdelrahman from “malicious and defamatory accusations” over her cooperation with those investigating the kidnapping and murder of her former doctoral supervisee, Giulio Regeni, in 2016.
Regeni, a 28 year-old doctoral student and member of Girton College who had moved to Cairo in September 2015 to pursue a thesis on the Egyptian economy and research on independent trade unions, disappeared on 25th January 2016, and was found dead nine days later in a ditch at the outskirts of the capital.
Egyptian police initially claimed that the cause of Regeni’s death was a car accident, and other contemporary media speculated that he had been caught up in a police raid against demonstrators on the fifth anniversary of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. However, the state-run newspaper