Cambridge student, 28, tortured to death after being mistaken for a spy, suffered broken legs, arms, seven ribs and each finger, severe burns and was cut all over his body with a razor by Egyptian security officers, investigation finds

A Cambridge student who was mistaken for a foreign spy in Cairo in 2016 was tortured to death and cut across his body with a razor by four Egyptian security officers, an inquest heard.

Giulio Regeni, 28, was beaten with sticks and suffered serious burns, the prosecutor’s medical adviser told the trial of Egyptian intelligence officers in Rome on Wednesday.

It was revealed that the Italian student’s autopsy showed major signs of extreme torture, including cuts and bruises from severe beatings and more than twenty broken bones – including seven broken ribs, all fingers and toes, as well as legs, arms and shoulders. knives.

Regeni’s body also had multiple stab wounds to the soles of his feet, slices in his skin made from a sharp object suspected to be a razor blade, and several cigarette burns.

A larger burn mark was seen between his shoulder blades – a chilling sign that the student was pressed with a large, burning object.

Regeni had been to Cairo for his dissertation to research the independent Egyptian trade unions

The autopsy revealed that the mutilated Regini had also suffered a brain haemorrhage and a fractured cervical vertebra after his neck was twisted or struck, which ultimately led to his death.

Medical examiner Vittorio Fineschi, who conducted the autopsy on the Italian researcher, said he found on the corpse “almost all the torture carried out in Egypt.”

Regeni, from Fiumicello, a town near Udine in northeastern Italy, was so severely tortured that his mother Paola Deffendi said she could only recognize him “from the tip of his nose.”

She added that “all the evil in the world” had been inflicted on her son’s body.

Regeni was subjected to horrific beatings by four Egyptian secret service agents, whom Italian prosecutors claim were involved in the murder, but have failed to track them down to issue a summons.

As a result, they are tried in absentia. The second and final trial took place in February, with Regeni’s mother, father and sister present.

The PhD student was on his way to visit a friend when he left his flat near Behoos metro station in Cairo on January 25, 2016.

Nine days later, his body was found naked from the waist down and dumped in a ditch near a desert highway between Cairo and Alexandria.

His gruesome murder was the first time such a thing had happened to a foreign academic researcher working in Cairo.

Regeni had been to Cairo for his dissertation to research the independent Egyptian trade unions. Associates say he was also interested in the long-term domination of Egypt’s economy by the state and military. Both topics are sensitive in Egypt.

He is also said to have written anti-government articles for the left-wing Italian newspaper il Manifesto under a pseudonym.

The newspaper’s foreign editor, Simone Pieranni, said at the time that the articles had been written under an alternative name out of fear of reprisals.

Pieranni said: ‘I assume it was for security reasons because the articles were about workers and unions.

“It is clear that when you talk about social rights and workers’ rights in Egypt, you are implicitly denouncing the lack of freedom.”

In an editorial, the newspaper added: “He feared for his safety.”

Prosecutors said in February they had evidence showing that Major Magdi Sharif, of Egypt’s General Intelligence Directorate, got informants to follow Regeni and eventually had him arrested at a Cairo metro station.

The Egyptian government admitted in 2016 to placing the student under surveillance.

According to the indictment, Sharif and other unidentified Egyptian officials then tortured Regeni for several days, causing him “acute physical suffering.”

An Egyptian friend of Regeni said that shortly before Regeni’s death, the student sought contacts for union activists to interview as part of his investigation.

This political investigation took center stage when the friend was questioned by police after the Italian student’s disappearance, he said.

Another friend revealed that Regeni had left his accommodation in a “middle-class part of Cairo to meet a friend downtown.”

“The friend called him after he didn’t show up. His mobile phone was switched off at the time,” the friend told MailOnline in 2016, on condition of anonymity.

‘We spoke briefly on the day of his disappearance, about two hours earlier. He was happy and cheerful, he was about to meet a friend. No indication of any concern whatsoever.”

Italian and Egyptian prosecutors initially investigated the case together, but came to different conclusions.

Egypt said the killing was the work of gangsters and denied any state involvement in Regeni’s disappearance or death.

His family categorically denied suggestions in Italian press reports that Regeni may have worked for Italian intelligence.