A decade after the death of Giulio Regeni ’07, an Italian court has delivered a measure of accountability in a case that touched the UWC-USA community.
On September 28, three Egyptian security officials were convicted in absentia of kidnapping Giulio, an Italian doctoral student conducting research in Cairo when he disappeared in 2016. Each received a 10-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay damages to Giulio’s family and court costs. The verdict follows years of determined advocacy by Giulio’s family, legal team, and supporters seeking truth about his death.
For classmates, faculty, staff, and fellow alumni who knew Giulio, the news carries both sorrow and significance. He is remembered as a brilliant, deeply engaged member of the UWC-USA community. Giulio was a young person whose curiosity, conviction, and commitment to understanding the world reflected the values that brought so many of us to Montezuma.
No court decision can ease the profound loss felt by Giulio’s family and all those who loved him. But the verdict recognizes the gravity of what was taken from them and honors the extraordinary persistence of those who refused to let his case be forgotten.
Alessandra Ballerini, a lawyer for Giulio’s family, said in an article about the verdict in the New York Times, that the sentence meant that “all citizens of the world can feel safer.” In a statement, she added that the sentence would compel authoritarian regimes “to remember that people’s dignity is inviolable.”
Today, we stand with Giulio’s family, friends, classmates, and the teachers and staff who knew and loved him. His life, his ideas, and his spirit remain a permanent part of UWC-USA—and of the worldwide community committed to dignity, equity, and justice.