Palestinian Witness Describes Giulio Regeni's Torture in Cairo

Palestinian Witness Describes Giulio Regeni's Torture in Cairo
November 21, 2024, 1:39 pm

علم مصر

A Palestinian witness who was detained in the same secret police facility in Cairo where Giulio Regeni was tortured stated that he saw Regeni blindfolded and exhausted from the torture. The witness provided his testimony in a video presented during the in absentia trial of four Egyptian intelligence officers accused of torturing the Italian student to death.

The former detainee stated in the video shown in court, "Giulio Regeni was handcuffed behind his back and blindfolded." He added, "I saw him again as he was leaving the interrogation, exhausted from the torture. He was between two jailers who were carrying him on their shoulders. They were taking him back to the cells."

Regeni, a 28-year-old researcher at the University of Cambridge studying street unions in Cairo, is believed to have been tortured to death between January 25 and February 3, 2016, after Egyptian security officers concluded he was a spy.

General Tarek Sabir and the officers under his command, including Colonel Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim, Colonel Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif, are on trial in absentia in Rome after Egypt refused to inform them of the proceedings.

Regeni's mother, Paola Deffendi, stated that the torture her son endured was so severe that she could only recognize him "by the tip of his nose." She added that "all the evil in the world" had been inflicted upon her son's body.

The Palestinian witness further noted in the documentary, "Regeni was not naked; he was wearing clothes—dark pants and a white T-shirt. I saw another prisoner with signs of torture on his back."

He also mentioned that the jailers repeatedly pressured him with questions, asking, "Giulio, where did you learn techniques to withstand interrogation?" He recalled that they used electric shocks and tortured him electrically. In addition to the jailers, the witness stated in court that there were investigators and officers he had not seen before, as well as a psychologist.

He concluded, "There was no contact with the outside world: it felt like being in a tomb. I was kidnapped, detained, and then released without reason." Amnesty International has reported that Regeni is one of hundreds of political prisoners believed to be "disappeared" in Egypt each year.

According to an Italian autopsy report, Regeni's body showed major signs of extreme torture: contusions and bruises all over from severe beating; extensive bruising from kicks and blows with sticks; more than twenty bone fractures, including seven broken ribs, all fingers and toes, as well as legs, arms, and shoulder blades; multiple stab wounds on his body, including the soles of his feet, possibly from an ice pick or similar sharp instrument; numerous cuts all over his body made with a sharp object suspected to be a razor; extensive cigarette burns; a larger burn mark between the shoulder blades caused by a hard, hot object; a brain hemorrhage; and a broken cervical vertebra, which ultimately caused his death.

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