ROME – Giulio Regeni’s parents have appealed to Maha Abdelrahman, the Cambridge don of Egyptian origin responsible for Giulio Regeni’s thesis, to break silence and collaborate with Italian investigators to help determine the truth behind the murder of the Cambridge student.

Ms Abdelrahman earlier this month publicly declared “I won’t give a formal statement to the Italian authorities” following the trip to England of Italian investigators carrying an international letter rogatory, police officials have reported.

Judge Sergio Colaicco, a member of the Italian investigatory team dealing with this case, was thus rebuffed by Abdelrahman in his efforts to shed light on this tragic story, rendering their trip to England all but fruitless. This confirms the Cambridge professor’s decision to follow the University’s legal advice to stay silent and comes as a blunt rejection to the mother of the late student’s pleas, for those involved “to whom we unquestionably entrusted Giulio, to have courage to overcome this moral apathy” to obtain justice for her son.

This latest stance of Abdelrahman, in which she refuses to even give a comment, marks a stark contrast from her initial reaction, where she, as part of a group of academics publically confirmed their “shock and grief” and openly “invited the Egyptian authorities to search for the culprits,” observers said.

Italian magistrates following the case say that in order to get to the bottom of the case, it is necessary to look in detail at every aspect of the project that Regeni undertook, right from the start. The method of research that was chosen to investigate the Egyptian independent trade unions, was PAR (Participatory action research): one that implies direct participation with the internal running of the organisations, thus improved clarity and accuracy, but one which, in a country such as Egypt where every activity is rigidly controlled by the political regime, greatly augments the likelihood of exposure.

A plethora of queries arise surrounding this approach to research in such a politically unstable country: When was it decided that Regeni would conduct his research under the auspices of PAR? Who proposed this method of research? Had they fully evaluated the level of danger? And above all, who were the contacts given to Regeni, both academic and those within the trade unions? It was in an effort to answer questions of responsibility surrounding this choice of methodology, that the Italian investigators came to Cambridge, but as yet their efforts have been rewarded with silence.

Ms Abdelrahman relocated to England from Egypt to become a professor specialising in DPhil studies of the Middle East and North Africa in the Department of POLIS (Politics and International Relations) at the University of Cambridge, is allegedly in opposition to the Abd Fattah al Sisi regime. She attended the funeral ceremony of Giulio Regeni, where she listened to his parents’ pleas for justice and solidarity, before a few hours later, choosing to keep silent. This has lead to allegations that her decisions might be motivated by fear of the regime as well as the possibility of being sued for negligence.

Members of the Regeni family and close friends of Giulio, have been angered by the lack of support provided to the masters student, and by the fundamental lack of foresight that evidently led to his death. The professors at Cambridge and at the American University of Cairo, where Regeni was under the wing of supervisor Rabab El Mahdi, “should both have been well aware of the realities of the danger surrounding the independent trade unions in Egypt” the Espresso magazine writes.

These organisations, considered the “enemies of power” by the government of Al Sisi, run enormous risks given the ruling of official documents of any “attempts to destabilise the regime to be opposed”, calling in to question the responsibility of those supervising Regeni’s studies.

Efforts to resolve the case surrounding Regeni’s murder appear to be advancing at an equally slow pace in Egypt with inconclusive results. Investigators in Rome received testimonies of a reported interrogation of eight people; one of whom was said to be Regeni’s flat-mate, the other seven claimed acquaintances of the five presumed bandits killed in a shoot-out.  However the reports are vague and reportedly of dubious reliability, with the statements having been hand-written in Arabic, proving difficult to decipher. Also sent, was a note summarising the finding of Regeni’s identity card at the bandits’ house by the Egyptian police, the doctors’ autopsy report of the bandits found dead and a printout of telephone recordings. However this information is allegedly incomplete: the Egyptian authorities reportedly only deciding to enclose the autopsy report of three of the five found dead and the telephone recording only shows that of the month of March.

This partial collaboration coupled with the impregnable silence of those at the University of Cambridge, leaves the truth still very far from being reached, with the enforced temporary suspension of the political initiative of the Italian government. It appears that for the time being, there is little more that the family and friends of Giulio Regeni can do but wait and hope that who have the ability to offer elucidation on this tragic case, find the “courage to regain the moral and ethical dimensions” of this quest for truth.

DT