Demand for truth in Giulo Regini case sparks protests

Submitted by AWL on 6 April, 2016 - 12:04 Author: Hugh Edwards

As the father of Italian student Giulio Regeni, murdered while researching trade unions in Egypt, said: "Giulio was a citizen of the world, and he didn't only live to study, he enjoyed himself. And here they are, the generation without limits and without borders, those for whom every place  in this world is a kind of home, ready to demand the truth for Giulio".

Two months after his murder, Italy this week awaits the arrival of the most senior Egyptian investigators who , it is claimed, will consign an exhaustively researched dossier on the death of Regeni into the hands of Rome's leading public prosecutor, Guiseppe Pignatone.

It is an open secret that whatever else it is, it won't be the truth. It will be a continuation of the litany of lies and distortions that has spewed forth since the discovery of a body so mutilated his mother could only identify her son by the profile of his nose.

First they declared it was a personal vendetta,, next he was a spy, then a street accident, followed by idea that he was the victim of a racist assassination by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Finally two weeks ago it was claimed Regeni was a victim of a common gang of criminals who murdered him because he wouldn't give a credit card PIN, and the gang itself was then wiped out in a shootout with security forces. The only truth here is that four men were arbitrarily picked up and cold-bloodedly disposed of to fit the needs of the Egyptian authorities.

The Italian government, ally of the Al Sisi regime, knows  the score. Like bourgeois regimes everywhere, it has  its own record of foul deeds against civil rights and social justice.

It knows that the young Italian researcher was but one of 88 who have vanished suddenly since the New Year. Eight have been found murdered after hideous suffering and torture.

Three weeks ago, in an interview with the daily centre-left La Repubblica, Al Sisi talked of his sense of responsibility, about the need to find the culprit who had brought dishonour to his country. But he also signalled unequivocally to Renzi and his cronies the consequences for both countries if the unfortunate death of the young researcher led to a fracturing of their economic, commercial, political and strategic interests in the Middle East and elsewhere.

He was not alluding to any sincere and principled intransigence on the issue from the representatives of Italy's ruling circles. Rather, to the fact that protests among millions of ordinary Italians, and especially the young, have not diminished and in fact continue to grow, spearheaded by a variety of national and international civil right organisations, plus thousands of local and regional committees of support.

The protests include football supporters and players of Seria B. Each game is now begun with mass chanting of the slogan "truth for Giulio". It is hoped that the same will follow for Seria A.
 
Al Sisi knows only too well that such moments of protest can become a general surge of the class-struggle. In the way of that stands the shameful silence and inaction of the official trade union confederations, confirming their utter and abject  bankruptcy.

But the magnificent sense of solidarity with the Regeni family and the protests everwhere underline how the struggle for justice and truth  can become, is becoming, a symbol  of resistance against tyranny everwhere.

"I am with you and I feel your pain, as I do every day  for Khaled. I want to thank you for being with us , and for your interest. Like your son,  in the struggle against torture in Egypt. I hope that struggle will continue."

Those are the words of Laila Marzouk, mother of Khaled Said, the young Egyptian who murder by the police in 2010 was the spark that set off the revolt in Tahrir Square, in a message to the mother of Giulio Regeni.

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