Giulio Regeni: trial of Egyptian security agents charged over death begins in Rome

The accused, all members of the National Security Agency, are being tried in absentia after the researcher's kidnap and killing in Cairo

A court in Rome has begun the trial of four Egyptian security service officers accused of killing an Italian researcher, Giulio Regeni, five and a half years after his mutilated body was found in a ditch by a road in Cairo.

Italian prosecutors accuse Gen Tariq Saber, Col Aser Ibrahim, Capt Hesham Helmi, and Maj Magdi Abd al-Sharif of the aggravated kidnapping" of Regeni, while Sharif is also charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated murder". Kidnap carries a potential sentence of up to eight years in Italy, while Sharif could receive a life sentence.