“In the morgue I saw signs of torture on his body”

“I personally went to the morgue where Giulio’s body was kept. There were obvious signs of tortureblows received all over the body with bruises and signs of fractures And cuts“. The dramatic story of the former Italian ambassador in Cairo begins, Maurizio Massari, who today was heard as a witness in the trial before the Assize Court of Rome against four Egyptian 007s for the death of Giulio Regeni.

During the hearing Massari, currently Italian ambassador to the United Nations and in Cairo until April 2016, he reconstructed the days of disappearance of the Italian researcher, in January 2016, and of discovery of his corpse, answering the questions of the deputy prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco.

“The first time Regeni’s name was mentioned to me was on the night of January 25, 2016 – said the diplomat -. I remember receiving a phone call from an Italian professor around 11.30pm (Gennaro Gervasio, ed) who told me that she hadn’t heard from him for a few hours and that he hadn’t shown up for an appointment they had that evening and his cell phone was turned off. I immediately notified the center managerAise at the embassy which he activated with his contacts who, however, did not receive any news on Regeni”.

Massari explained that “January 25th was a particular day: there was a lot of police, there had been searches. From the embassies we sent warnings to Italians to avoid dangerous areas and gatherings. But Giulio didn’t receive it, it wasn’t registered, there was no obligation. After the professor’s call I immediately notified the Aise center head. I asked for a meeting at Ministry of Interior Egyptian. The concerns were growing, we received no information from the Egyptian authorities. When we came back to ask for a meeting, I remember around January 30-31, his chief of staff finally told me that the minister would meet me soon.”

In fact, on 2 February, after the news of Regeni’s disappearance had become official, the ambassador was received by the Egyptian Minister of the Interior. “We had no news on Giulio’s fate but the minister made some references to subway cameras of Cairo from which there was no evidence of any passage by Giulio on the evening of January 25th”. The news of the discovery of the body was communicated to him the following day by the Egyptian deputy foreign minister. “I then remember that I received some messages from Regeni’s tutor at the American University in Cairo. It was she who told me where the body was, she advised me to go there and to insist on it the autopsy was not carried out in Egypt”, he concluded.