Committee of Concerned Scientists

An international non-profit organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of our colleagues around the world.

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Cambridge Italian Scholar Murdered in Egypt in 2016. Italian Government Requests Extradition of Offenders.

December 24, 2020

December 27, 2020

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
Office of the President
Al Ittihadia Palace
Cairo, Arab Republic of Egypt
Fax: +202 2391 1441
Email: p.spokesman@op.gov.eg

Your Excellency,

The Committee of Concerned Scientists is an independent organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars devoted to the protection and advancement of human rights and scientific freedom for colleagues all over the world.

We write to urge your government to take action to see to it that those responsible for the killing of Italian scholar Giulio Regeni are brought to justice. Mr. Regeni was a Ph.D. candidate at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom studying independent trade unions. He traveled to Egypt in January 2016 and was found dead on February 3, the apparent victim of torture and murder.

We are deeply disturbed that your government has “temporarily closed” the investigation into this ugly crime, while the Italian government, after extensive investigation, has identified and is preparing to prosecute four security officers – General Tareq Sabir, Colonel Ather Kamal, Major Magdi Sharif, and Colonel Hisham Helmy.

We urge you to collaborate with the Italian authorities in this case by arresting these four suspects and extraditing them to Italy so they may face justice. Should this occur, we will, likewise, urge the Italian authorities to guarantee that they receive a fair trial, including a presumption of innocence.

We urge you to reopen this case, and bring those found responsible to justice in Egypt, as well.

The global academic community is watching this case, and other cases of flagrant human rights abuses, with increasing dismay. Scholars and scientists in Egypt must be free to carry out their work, even work that may be controversial, without threats or intimidation, and police cannot be allowed such extensive impunity that they are able to commit murder without consequences.

We urge you to take action. Those responsible for grave human rights abuses must be brought to justice. Our colleagues in the scientific and academic community must be free to operate in Egypt free from fear.

Thank you for your attention to this most serious matter, and we look forward to receiving your response.

Sincerely,
Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich, Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander Greer
Co-Chairs, Committee of Concerned Scientists

cc:
Ahmed Ihab Gamal-Eldin
Deputy Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Human Rights
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Corniche el-Nile, Cairo, Egypt
Fax: +202 2574 9713
Email: contact.us@mfa.gov.eg

Ambassador Yasser Reda
Embassy of Egypt
3521 International Court, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Fax: 202 244 4319 or 202 244 5131
Phone: 202 895 5400
Email: embassy@egyptembassy.net

Filed Under: CCS Cases Tagged With: Ather Kamal, Cambridge Ph.D Candidate, Egypt, Giulio Regeni, Hisham Helmy, Italian Scholar, Magdi Sharif, Regeni, Tareq Sabir

Who We Are

Co-chairs

Joel L. Lebowitz, Rutgers University

Paul H. Plotz, M.D., Washington, DC

Walter Reich, George Washington University

Eugene Chudnovsky, Lehman College

Alexander Greer, Brooklyn College

Vice-chairs

Astronomy – Arno Penzias, New Enterprises Associates*

Biology – Max E. Gottesman, Columbia University

Chemistry – Zafra Lerman, MIMSAD Inc.

Computer Science – Rachelle Heller, The George Washington University

Computer Science – Jack Minker, University of Maryland, College Park

Engineering – Philip Sarachik, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering

Mathematics – Simon Levin, Princeton University

Medical Sciences – J. Joseph Blum, Duke University

Honorary Board Members

Nancy Andrews, Duke University

David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology*

Alan J. Bard, University of Texas

Jacob Bigeleisen (deceased), SUNY, Stony Brook

Raoul Bott (deceased), Harvard University

Owen Chamberlain (deceased), University of California, Berkeley

Stanley Deser, Brandeis University

Edward Gerjuoy, University of Pittsburg

David Gross, (2004 Nobel Prize in Physics), Kavil Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara*

Pierre Hohenberg (deceased), New York University

Walter Kohn (deceased), University of California, Santa Barbara*

James Langer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Peter Lax, New York University

Louis Nirenberg, New York University

Marshall Nirenberg (deceased), National Institutes of Health*

Honorary Board Members

John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto*

Stuart Rice, University of Chicago

Sir Richard J. Roberts, (1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine), New England Biolabs*

Myriam Sarachick, City College of New York

Harold Scheraga, Cornell University

Sylvan Schweber (deceased), Brandeis University

Maxine Singer, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Alfred I. Tauber, Boston University

Steven Weinberg, University of Texas, Austin*

Myrna Weissman, Columbia University

Rosalyn S. Yalow (deceased), Mount Sinai School of Medicine*

* Nobel laureate

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