All one thousand seats
were filled at the funeral ceremony on Friday for Giulio Regeni,
the Italian doctoral research student who was brutally murdered
in Egypt.
The ceremony took place in a gymnasium in Regeni's hometown
of Fiumicello, about 35 kilometres northwest of Trieste in the
northern region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, where flags in the
region's public offices flew at half-mast and the region's
website displayed a black mourning ribbon.
Businesses and public offices in Fiumicello were closed on
Friday for a citywide day of mourning, with only coffee bars and
restaurants open specifically to service the large number of
mourners and press in town to cover the funeral.
About one thousand additional mourners gathered outside of
the gymnasium to pay their respects.
Among the dignitaries present were Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Governor Debora Serracchiani and Chairman of the Italian Senate
Foreign Affairs Committee Pier Ferdinando Casini.
Flowers were sent by the Italian Embassy and the University
of Cambridge, where the 28-year-old Regeni was conducting his
PhD research in the Department of Politics and International
Studies.
The ceremony was conducted partially in English to
accommodate Regeni's foreign friends who don't speak Italian.
Regeni's casket was covered with white flowers and carried
into the gymnasium, followed by family and close friends.
The priest who officiated the funeral expressed thanks to
Regeni in his homily.
"Thank you for this work of witnessing that involves us
all. Thank you, thank you, and thank you still," said Father
Luigi Fontanot, who was one of Regeni's personal friends.
"Giulio was a special person, for his enthusiasm, for his
desire for knowledge," Fontanot said.
Premier Matteo Renzi said Friday that Egypt's friendship
with Italy means that it must find and disclose the truth about
Regeni's murder.
"It's a dramatic case and I once again I express my
condolences to Giulio's family and I say what we have already
said to the Egyptians - friendship is a precious thing and it is
only possible with the truth," Renzi told Radio Anch'io.
Regeni was found in a ditch on a desert road outside Cairo
February 3 after disappearing January 25, the fifth anniversary
of the uprising against Hosni Mubarak.
His ears were clipped, nose broken, two nails were torn out
and there were cuts all over his body including to the soles of
his feet.
Egypt has repeatedly denied its security forces had
anything to do with the murder.
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