Hundreds of mourners have gathered in a village in northern Italy for the funeral of Giulio Regeni, a Cambridge PhD student found tortured and dead in a ditch on the outskirts of Cairo last week.
Flags were flying at half-mast in Fiumicello, where villagers offered spare rooms and couches for the 28-year-old’s friends and family, as the diplomatic fallout from his death continued in Rome.
The Italian prime minister, Matteo Renzi, warned Egypt that the health of the relationship between the two countries rested on the quality of the investigation into Regeni’s killing.
Egyptian authorities first blamed the death on a road accident, but a second autopsy conducted in Italy determined that he had been subjected to brutal torture. Laboratory results are expected to confirm the time of death in the next few days.
“For the moment, all our requests have been met and above all we have demanded that every element should be put on the table in order that the truth can be established and those really responsible can be detained. We have told the Egyptians: friendship is a precious asset but it is only possible on the basis of truth,” Renzi told Radio Anch’io.
Regeni had been investigating labour unrest and trade unions in Egypt before his disappearance in Cairo on 25 January, the fifth anniversary of the Egyptian revolution. His body was found on 3 February.
In a letter published in the Guardian on 8 February, more than 4,600 academics expressed their concern about Egypt’s investigation into the killing and the current regime’s human rights abuses.
As the funeral was held in Italy, a parallel memorial event took place outside the Italian embassy in London, organised by Paz Zárate, a close friend of Regeni.
Moving memorial service for #GiulioRegeni outside the Italian embassy today. #justiceforgiulio pic.twitter.com/8NSZuj9O8u
— Patrick Greenfield (@Greenfpa) February 12, 2016
Friends and former colleagues read Regeni’s favourite poetry as mourners stood with flowers in the winter chill, conducting a minute’s silence while displaying placards with the message #justiceforgiulio.
Angelo Martelli, president of the LSE Italian Society, told the crowd: “Giulio was an example of a young, free man who does not give up.
“[He] has paid the all-too-common price for believing there is a responsibility to engage, rather than running away.”
Hannah Waddilove, a former colleague of Regeni, has created a petition asking the UK government to support an “impartial and independent investigation into Giulio’s murder”.
Regeni had lived in the UK for 10 years and many mourners said they were keen for the British authorities to oversee the investigation, citing its responsibility to its many international students.
