Three Egyptian security officials were convicted in Rome over the abduction of Cambridge University student Giulio Regeni, whose tortured body was found in Cairo in 2016. The verdict matters as a rare legal finding of responsibility in a case that has strained relations between Italy and Egypt, though the officials were tried in absentia and are unlikely to serve their sentences.

A judge sentenced intelligence officer Magdi Sharif and police officers Ather Kamal and Hisham Helmy to 10 years in prison for aggravated kidnapping; former state security chief Tarek Sabir was acquitted, and Sharif was cleared of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder. Regeni, 28, was researching trade unions when he disappeared; an autopsy found he had been beaten, burnt, stabbed and flogged, and died from a broken neck. Egypt has denied state involvement, while prosecutors said Egyptian authorities had not fully co-operated.