Judge halts trial for 4 members of Egyptian security forces

By ANDREA ROSA and NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — A Rome judge has halted the trial of four high-ranking members of Egypt’s security forces on the day it began. The judge said there was no certainty they had been formally made aware that they were charged in the abduction, torture and killing in Cairo of an Italian doctoral student. In an ordinance read aloud Thursday at the end of the hearing, Judge Antonella Capri nullified the May indictment and ordered the documentation returned to prosecutors. It was a blow to prosecutors who have been trying to bring justice to Giulio Regeni’s killers for five years. Regeni was in Cairo to research union activities among street vendors as part of his doctoral thesis.