ROME -- Luigi Giacomo Passeri, a 31 year old from Pescara, currently imprisoned in Egypt is being “tortured” according to his family. 

  For almost a year, Passeri, who had been living in London, has been incarcerated in an Egyptian prison. Egyptian authorities accused the Italian of possession and trafficking of narcotics and for participation in a drug dealing network which sells to the local market. In reality, Passeri’s family claim he was charged with possession of a small quantity of marijuana, intended for personal use only.

  In a letter to his brother Antonio, Passeri explained that he was kept in a cell with “12 prisoners accused of murder and attempted murder.” 

 Following an operation for appendicitis, he had been “abandoned without care for days”, and officers had thrown water over him. 

  “If it had not been for the doctor who told them to stop, I don’t know how it would’ve ended,” Passeri wrote, “what a nightmare I’m living, my brother. For the few things they found on me, it is impossible to live in this hell.”  

  Passeri was stopped by police on August 23^rd 2023 while travelling in Egypt, in the 11 months since then, he has faced missed interrogations, missing interpreters, and hearings postponed three months at a time, with the upcoming hearing to take place in September. Farnesina, Italy’s ministry of foreign affairs, has assured that it is in constant contact with Egypt, however, there have been no visits to Cairo by either Passeri’s Egyptian lawyer, nor the Italian embassy. 

  The deputy head of the Green Left Alliance, Marco Grimaldi, called for an immediate intervention from the Italian government, comparing Passeri’s situation to politician Ilaria Salis and researcher Giuglio Regeni who was tortured to death in Egypt in 2016. 

  “We do not want another Salis case, we certainly do not want another Regeni case,” Grimaldi explained, “the Italian Embassy in Egypt must guarantee assistance and support and move for a fair and law-abiding trial to be carried out in a timely manner, the government should take action to bring Luigi back to Italy.” 

  “We only know that since August last year, we have not had any direct news from Luigi and we have not seen him, nor have we spoken on the phone, but we have received only two letters which have greatly alarmed us about his condition,” Antonio, Passeri’s brother, continued. 

  “He suffered torture, he was locked in a cell full of faeces, urine, and cockroaches, with handcuffs so tight that blood no longer flowed through his fingers.” 

  “I understand that he is irreproachable, and according to our lawyer in Egypt, the sentence should be positive for Luigi. But we have had such little news from him for almost a year and so we are worried. We ask the State to take an interest in him, if he has done something it is right that he should pay, but he can do it in Italy, bring him home.” 

lw