TRIESTE -- Hundreds of people congregated in the town square of this northeastern Italian city to protest against the removal of the 'truth for Giulio Regeni'  banner at the hands of the town mayor Roberto Dipiazza.

 Regeni, the Italian Cambridge University graduate, was kidnapped and tortured to death during a research trip to Egypt earlier this year. The brutal murder sparked international outrage, as Amnesty International launched the ‘Truth for Giulio Regeni’ campaign across the globe.

 Just months down the line and the town council of his home region want to remove the banner in order to “avoid political exploitation”, according to Il Fatto Quotidiano. This decision has led to protests across the city of Trieste, as even Debora Serracchiani, vice secretary of the Democratic Party, re-fixed a banner on the government building of the region in clear response to the choice Dipiazza controversially made.

 Nevertheless, the motion amongst the town council to restore and repost the banner was rejected with 25 votes against compared to 15 in favour.

 Meanwhile, In the Unita square, hundreds of people congregated for an organised protest which turned rowdy -- swearing, jostling, slapping and even punching was involved until the municipial police intervened.

 The aim of those protesting, supported by Amnesty International, was to have the banner reapplied to the face of the square, where currently there are no large symbols or banners, just yellow posters with the words “truth for Giulio Regeni” held by protestors.

 Pino Roveredo, the winning writer of the ‘Premio Campiello’ 2005, said “this political game is disgusting, it is playing with people who have suffered. I think of the parents of Guilio Regeni -- their son was tortured and massacred. We are searching for the truth, we’re not looking for martyrs. We are here to give a voice to Trieste, this city, which is pushed aside by administrators who make choices that are absolutely not shared by the majority of people.”

 The ex-president of Friuli, Venezia Giulia, asked for “a street to be named after Giulio Regeni, the true and real martyr of the truth, not just in Fiumicello, his hometown, but also in Trieste.”

 A plea has also been made by the Democratic Party senator Francesco Russo, regarding the choice of the mayor of Trieste as “a grave error", claiming, “we do not use terrible events like this to divide the public -- if there is one way to go backwards, it is this. Let’s not transform this horrendous issue into an electoral campaign.”

 sw