Regeni case: Egypt's position remains unchanged after ten years

Egypt's position regarding the Regeni affair has remained substantially unchanged for the last 10 years: "no involvement of the secret services or state or security apparatus", "an unmotivated trial", "no Italian jurisdiction over Egyptian citizens operating within Egyptian state institutions". For Cairo, the case was closed in 2021, while in Italy a trial considered illegitimate by Egypt began. The following years were of substantial silence, apart from some vague promises of "clarity and truth" on the sidelines of official visits.

On the day the body of the Friulian student was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Cairo, the authorities ruled out a crime, speaking of a probable accident. When signs of torture and beatings emerged, an investigation was opened, there were talks between ambassadors and Cairo expressed its willingness to collaborate. A few days later two suspects were arrested and released shortly after. Friends and acquaintances, NGOs and universities were scoured in search of some imprudence on his part, which had never been proven. His arrest was also denied while the authorities insisted on the hypothesis of an accident or a criminal act. "The search for the criminals and those responsible for the killing of Giulio Regeni - said the then Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar - is at the top of our priorities, of our efforts and we treat this topic with extreme importance, also considering our relations with Italy and the Italian government". These are the results: from the road accident we moved on to hypotheses of personal revenge, even Islamic terrorism, while in Italy someone began to speak of "lack of collaboration on the part of the Egyptian government". An executive, that of Cairo, elected two years earlier after a controversial revolution, and headed by the current president, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, protected by an imposing security apparatus in the face of declared persistent internal and external threats.

Some anonymous voices began to leak that Regeni had been 'attended' by the intelligence since his arrival in Cairo, while the investigators were preparing a 2000-page report calling into question 200 people to present to the Italian investigators, without however indicating any culprit. Between diplomatic crises and rapprochements, the Egyptian government has never changed its version of events, excluding the involvement of Egyptian secret services and security apparatus, while Sisi reiterated his "full commitment" in finding those responsible. And while ambassadors and governments succeeded one another in Italy, with relations with Cairo in fits and starts but substantially reopened to economic and commercial exchanges, in Egypt there was a long phase of stalemate, at least until the lead that led to the agents of the Egyptian secret services made its way in Italy. "An unmotivated trial", they said in Cairo of the indictment, which was followed by a very long no comment, except for generic promises of 'truth' and collaboration made by Sisi at every official Italian visit to Cairo. Egypt, faced with requests from the Italian Prosecutor's Office, invoked "the non-existence of Italian jurisdiction over Egyptian citizens operating within Egyptian state institutions". And since then the curtain has fallen on the case in Cairo.