Regeni case: towards the sentence for the murder of the Italian researcher

Ten years after the murder, the hour of judicial truth has arrived for the death of Giulio Regeni, which occurred in Cairo in January 2016 at the hands - according to the accusation - of four members of the Egyptian secret services. After several stops to the trials, the sentence from the Court of Assizes of Rome is awaited.

Here are the main stages of the story.

25 January 2016 - All traces of Giulio are lost: the young researcher, a doctoral student at Cambridge, 'disappears' near Tahir Square, in Cairo.

February 3, 2016 - His body is found on the road connecting Cairo to Alexandria in Egypt. Signs of torture on the body: bruises, fractures, wounds, burns.

February 4, 2016 - The director of the General Administration of Investigations, Khaled Shalabi, excludes violent action and the presence of gunfire or stabbing: the investigation is for a road accident. An autopsy is performed. The Rome prosecutor's office opens a case.

7 February 2016 - The body arrives in Italy, a new autopsy is carried out which certifies the torture. Meanwhile, Cairo changes its version from day to day, in what appears to be a misdirection: it ranges from homosexual homicide to killing at the hands of Muslim Brotherhood spies.

14 April 2016 - The Rome prosecutor's office sends the Egyptian authorities a letter rogatory and asks to acquire the telephone records of 13 people, videos of the areas frequented by the young man and a series of testimonies. Some printouts arrive on May 5th.

4 August 2016 - It emerges that Mohamed Abdallah, head of the street vendors union that Regeni was researching, had reported Giulio's activity to the Egyptian services. In December it will be known that it was he who reported it.

9 September 2016 - Summit in Rome between Egyptian and Italian magistrates. Egypt admits: Regeni was monitored, there is a commitment to hand over all the documentation.

4 December 2018 - The Rome prosecutor's office registers five men, members of the Egyptian civil secret services and investigative police, in the register of suspects for complicity in kidnapping.

November 30, 2020 - The collaborative relationship between Italian and Egyptian magistrates breaks down.

May 25, 2021 - The capital's preliminary hearing judge orders trial for four 007 defendants, accused of kidnapping, torturing and killing Regeni.

14 October 2021 - The III Court of Assizes postpones the proceedings before the preliminary hearing judge. The decision is linked to the absence of the defendants in the courtroom.

3 April 2023 - The Rome prosecutor's office asks the preliminary hearing judge to involve the Consulta to overcome the "stasis" of the trial against the four defendants. Then the Constitutional Court accepts the investigating judge's appeal and unblocks the judicial process.

20 January 2024 - The trial restarts in front of the first Assize Court. Giulio's parents: "We have been waiting for this moment for 8 years."

October 23, 2025 - New stop to the trial. The judges, accepting a request from the defenders, send a new request to the Council relating to the right of defense and the appointment of technical consultants.

30 January 2026 - A few days after the tenth anniversary of Regeni's death, the Consulta accepts the question of Constitutionality presented by the defence. The trial before the Court of Assizes of Rome can start again.

June 23, 2026 - The chief prosecutor of Rome Francesco Lo Voi and the deputy Sergio Colaiocco ask for a life sentence and three sentences of 17 and a half years of imprisonment against the accused Egyptian 007s. After the arguments of the defense in the subsequent hearings, the sentence is set for the following 28 September.