The Dead Remind Us
Italian researcher Giulio Regeni was murdered for his work in support of Egypt’s trade unions. The failure to bring his killers to justice shows the power of the interests he and his comrades sought to challenge.
A large crowd gathered in the English city of Cambridge for a vigil to mark the first anniversary of the discovery of Giulio Regeni’s body in Egypt.Alisdare Hickson / Wikimedia
Today marks the third anniversary of the kidnapping of Giulio Regeni, an Italian doctoral student at Cambridge University who was tortured and killed in Cairo by the Egyptian security forces.
Regeni was a polyglot, a well-traveled and cosmopolitan Italian citizen who moved to Cairo to study Egypt’s independent trade unions. Nine days after his disappearance on January 25, 2016 — the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Egyptian revolution — his body was found by the roadside on the outskirts of Cairo.
Despite a vast international campaign for justice, after three years of investigations and blind alleys, its call for truth remains unanswered. After an initial worsening of ties, over the last year Italy and Egypt have completely re-normalized their diplomatic relations.
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