An Italian court convicts three Egyptian security officials in the Giulio Regeni murder case

A court in Rome convicted three Egyptian security officials, in connection with the kidnapping of Italian student Giulio Regeni, whose body was found bearing signs of torture in Cairo a decade ago.

The three officials, who were tried in absentia, denied the charges against them. On Monday, they were sentenced to 10 years in prison for violent kidnapping, while a fourth Egyptian defendant was acquitted.

Regeni, 28, was studying for a doctorate at the University of Cambridge when he disappeared during a research trip in Egypt in 2016.

Days later, his mutilated body was found near Cairo. An autopsy later revealed that he had been tortured.

The Italian and Egyptian prosecutors initially investigated the case jointly, but they reached conflicting conclusions.

The Egyptian authorities said that a criminal gang was behind Regeni's killing, and put forward various other explanations for his death, including a car accident, a failed drug deal, or a robbery that did not go as planned.

It also denied any state involvement in Regeni's disappearance or death.

But prosecutors in Rome concluded that the Egyptian National Security Agency was involved in the crime.

The four defendants are Major General Tariq Saber, Colonels Hossam Helmy and Athar Kamel Muhammad Ibrahim, and Major Magdy Ibrahim Abdel-Al Sharif, while Saber was acquitted.

The Rome prosecutor and the Regeni family's lawyer welcomed the ruling.

“Starting today, people around the world can feel safer,” said Alessandra Ballerini, a lawyer for the Regeni family. “Impunity can be overcome, and democracies can set limits on arbitrary power.”

Regeni's family campaigned for justice over the decade. When the verdict was pronounced, silence fell on the family and his supporters in court, who wore yellow shirts and badges, the color of their campaign for justice, according to Agence France-Presse.

Regeni was kidnapped on January 25, 2016 while he was conducting doctoral research at the University of Cambridge on independent trade unions in Egypt, a politically controversial issue in the country.

His mother told the Italian Parliament in 2018 that her son's body was so mutilated that she could only recognize him by the tip of his nose. Prosecutors said he suffered injuries that showed he had been beaten “with kicks, punches, sticks and batons,” and that he died of a broken neck.

The ruling represents the end of efforts made by Italy over the years to prosecute security officials.