Egyptian investigator in Italian’s death has prior conviction linked to torture
CAIRO: A senior Egyptian police officer investigating the death of Italian student Giulio Regeni has a prior conviction in connection with the torture and killing of a detainee, according to judicial and security sources and a court document shared by rights groups.
Regeni, 28, disappeared on Jan. 25, the fifth anniversary of the 2011 uprising that ended President Hosni Mubarak’s 30year rule.
His body was found on the side of the main Cairo-Alexandria highway on Feb. 3. Egyptian forensics and prosecution officials have said he was tortured and killed by a blow with a sharp object to the back of the head.
Khaled Shalaby, now head of Criminal Investigations in Giza, and three others were charged in 2000 with torturing and killing a detainee inside a police station in Alexandria, according to the sources and the court document.
Under a final court ruling in 2003, he received a one-year suspended sentence for failing to prevent the death, judicial sources said.
The document, posted online by Egyptian human rights activists, suggested the detainee was strangled to death in 1999.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the authenticity of the document but judicial sources confirmed the conviction.
The case is also cited in a 2007 report compiled by human rights groups including the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence outlining a string of alleged abuses at the Montazah police station where Shalaby worked.
Shalaby became head of Criminal Investigations in Alexandria in 2009 and was transferred in 2013 to Giza where he was promoted to head the Criminal Investigations unit, according to a security source.
Contactedbytelephone,Shalaby denied the conviction.
“What does that have to do with the Italian’s case?” he said. — Reuters