Italian Cambridge PhD student suffered 'inhuman, animal-like' violence before his death in Egypt

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By Andrea Vogt, Bologna

An Italian Cambridge University PhD student killed in Cairo was tortured for several days before dying from a broken neck, according to a post-mortem.

Rome prosecutors have opened a murder investigation into the death of Giulio Regeni, whose battered corpse was found near a highway outside the Egyptian capital nine days after he was reported missing.

As new, disturbing details of Mr Regeni’s last days in Egypt emerge, some of the researcher’s former colleagues are asking the British government to join Italy’s demand for an independent investigation

A parliamentary petition requesting a formal statement from the British government has been drafted and will circulate in coming days, said Neil Pyper, Associate Head of the School of Strategy and Leadership at Coventry University.

Giulio Regeni was conducting PhD fieldwork in Cairo

“Giulio Regeni’s murder highlights the extra judicial threats still faced in parts of the world, which are a barrier to potentially important research,” Mr Pyper told the Telegraph. “The way to protect our researchers and students is for universities and governments to robustly demand that incidents are investigated and those responsible held to account.”

Mr Regeni’s parents arrived in Rome on Saturday with their son’s body, which underwent a second autopsy on Saturday in Rome following the one performed in Cairo after his body was reported discovered Feb. 3 along a motorway on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, coroners are still trying to establish whether the fatal neck injury was due to a severe blow or contortion.
Italy’s ambassador in Cairo said he was devastated by the condition of Mr Regeni’s body, which had more than two dozen broken bones, as well as bruises and burn marks, according to Italian media reports.

Members of the Egyptian police special forces patrol streets in al-Haram neighbourhood in the southern Cairo Giza district   Photo: AFP
“There is no doubt that the young man was heavily beaten and tortured,” Ambassador Maurizio Massari told the Corriere della Sera.
After reviewing autopsy results, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said Mr Regeni had suffered “something inhuman . . . an unacceptable violence.”
A funeral is planned for early next week in the 28-year-old’s native Italian region of Friuli. He had been living in Cairo to do research as a candidate for a Cambridge University doctorate when he disappeared on Jan. 25, the anniversary of Egypt’s 2011 uprising, a day when security forces were heavily patrolling the streets and squares. He had also been attending trade union meetings and had published at least one article in the Italian leftist newspaper Il Manifesto under a pseudonym.

“It happened to Giulio, but it could have been me or my friends Luca or Roberto, who have been to Egypt frequently for the same reasons, or anyone really of the so many of us who are passionate about the Arabic language, the Middle East and Islam,” said Alessandro Columbu, an Italian doctoral student who teaches Arabic at the University of Edinburgh.
Mr Columbu, who was classmates and flatmates with Mr Regeni in Damascus, told the Telegraph he is concerned there could be a cover up of the circumstances surrounding Mr. Regeni’s death, especially given Italy’s recent embrace of Egypt as an economic partner and ally in the fight against terrorism.

Mourners attend a candlelight vigil for Giulio Regeni, in front of the Italian embassy in Cairo, Egypt  Photo: AP Photo/Amr Nabil
“Egypt and Italy are friends, and this terrible story exposes a double standard in western European foreign policy: He was abducted by security forces in central Cairo and tortured to death. Unfortunately it takes a white, European to die to expose something that is happening to Egyptians all the time.”
A team of Italian police investigators has been dispatched to Cairo to gather additional information about Mr Regeni’s mobile phone, SIM card and the CCTV images from the area where he was last seen alive.

Fimuicello’s Mayor Ennio Scridel delivers a speech during a candlelit procession to honour the memory of Giulio Regeni in his hometown of Fiumicello, Italy  Photo: AP Photo/Paolo Giovannini