The second trial of four members of Egyptian security forces accused of killing an Italian student in 2016 has begun in Rome.
Four Egyptians who denied the charges are being tried in absentia.
Giulio Regeni, 28, went missing on a research trip to Egypt while studying for his PhD at Cambridge University.
Days later, his dismembered body was found in a ditch near Cairo. A subsequent autopsy revealed that he had been tortured.
The incident has strained relations between Italy and Egypt, as Rome has repeatedly accused Cairo of blocking attempts to seek justice for Mr Regeni’s death.
The four security guards were originally scheduled to be tried in absentia in October 2021, but the trial was suspended over concerns that prosecutors would be unable to track them down for prosecution.
In September, Italy’s Constitutional Court ruled that the case could continue in the absence of the defendant.
Ms Regeni’s parents, Claudio and Paola, and her sister Irene were present at the start of the trial on Tuesday.
Holding yellow roses, they unfurled a matching yellow banner in front of the courthouse that read “The Truth about Giulio Regeni.” They told Italian media that they had been waiting for this day for eight years.
Giulio Regeni was kidnapped on January 25, 2016, while researching Egypt’s independent trade unions (a politically controversial topic in Egypt) for his doctoral thesis at Cambridge University.
His body was found a few days later, on February 3, in a ditch on the Cairo-Alexandria road.
His mother told the Italian parliament in 2018 that her son’s body was so badly deformed that it could only be identified by the tip of his nose.
Prosecutors said the man died from a fractured neck, with injuries indicating he had been hit with “kicks, fists, sticks and clubs.”Mr