Murder of Giulio Regeni: Uncovering Egypt’s Dismal Record of Torture & Police Violence

Giulio Regeni, a 28-year old Italian PhD candidate from Cambridge University, was reported missing in Cairo, Egypt on January 25, the fifth anniversary of the 2011 revolution which toppled Hosni Mubarak. His body was later found in a ditch in the suburbs of the capital with apparent signs of torture, including cigarette burns, bruises, and several stab wounds. The affair has spurred international outcry and significantly damaged Egypt’s diplomatic relations with Italy, the country’s third most important trading partner. The Egyptian government has issued contradictory statements in an attempt to explain the incident. The Head of the Giza Investigations Department has stated that Regeni’s death was the result of a car accident and refuted signs of torture on his body. Other governmental sources claim that he may have been the victim of a common crime. However, they all seem to agree that security forces had nothing to do with it. The Italian government has demanded that Egypt immediately open an investigation and that Italian authorities be permitted to participate in the investigation.

Yet, political activist Wael Eskandar has noted that the cigarette burns are a classic sign of police torture in Egypt. Similarly, the head of the Egypt office of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies argued that the case bore “fingerprints of the Egyptian security apparatus.” Indeed, several eyewitnesses claim that they saw Regeni being escorted by police officers dressed as civilians. Moreover, activists revealed that Khaled Shalaby, the officer in charge of the investigation, has previously been sentenced to one year of imprisonment over charges of “complicity in the abduction, torture, and murder of an Egyptian man [...] as well as falsifying official documents.”

According to Egyptian officials, Mr. Regeni had suspicious contacts on his phone related to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood and the leftist April 6 Movement, both considered enemies of the state. “They figured he was a spy,” one of the officials stated. “After all, who comes to Egypt to study trade unions?”

Demonstrators on army truck in Tahrir Square, Cairo.

Regeni’s death may very well be yet another example of the extent of police brutality in Egypt. Since the election of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in June 2014, the country has seen an escalation in forced disappearances, cases of torture and police violence. In the three weeks following Regeni’s death, the country’s lawyers and doctors have participated in massive protests and sit-ins, the “largest demonstrations in Egypt since the military-backed government banned unauthorized protests more than two years ago,” according to The New York Times. Most recently, on February 10, a local newspaper reported the forced disappearance of 20 Alexandrian youths. They are believed to have been kidnapped, detained by the state and possibly framed by a police officer for burning his car in an effort to “counter a growing youth movement in Alexandria.”

Egypt is not alone in the recent trend of insecurity and lawlessness. Last week, Bahraini officials arrested four American journalists for covering the country’s clashes and crushed uprisings on the anniversary of its own revolution. Tunisia has been sternly criticized for recent cases of police brutality against drug offenders and homosexuals; Libya has also come under fire for blatantly mistreating its prisoners.