Since Giulio Regeni was found dead in the outskirts of Cairo in the beginning of February, a number of public statements and petitions have been launched. One of them is an invitation to academics to sign an open letter to the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who might be considered morally responsible together with most Western countries for de facto supporting the Egyptian regime.

Egypt’s interior minister Maj. Gen. Magdi Abdel-Ghaffar has dismissed any suggestion that the police were responsible for the death and said that “the Egyptian police are known for integrity and transparency.”

The minister has a problem with credibility, to say the least. Many of the articles about Giulio Regeni remind us of the other horrible acts carried out by the Egyptian regime lately, including alleged child molestation and the killings of Mexican tourists that Egypt has banned news coverage of. The fear that there will be no real justice is well founded, but we cannot accept that.

As Yezid Sayigh has identified, the problem of impunity is a key issue also for democracy:

If you also want to do more to protest against the wide-spread impunity, you are welcome to contact us on info@accoun.org