Italy’s top court last year decided to continue the trial of the four officials, who are being tried in absentia.

The trial of four Egyptian security officials accused of the kidnapping and murder of an Italian student in Cario opened in Italy on Tuesday, after a lengthy delay in proceedings over its legality.

Giulio Regeni, a doctoral student at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, disappeared in January 2016 in the Egyptian capital, where he was researching union activities among street vendors as part of his doctoral dissertation.

A month after his disappearance, the 28-year-old’s body was found on the side of a highway on the outskirts of Cairo. It had burn holes, chipped teeth and broken bones. An autopsy revealed that he had been tortured before his death.

Human rights activists also said the marks on his body were reminiscent of widespread torture in Egyptian security service facilities.

Regeni’s parents, Paola and Giulio Regeni, attended the opening session of the court on Tuesday and posed in front of the court with the banner “Truth for Giulio Regeni.”

Regeni family lawyer Alessandra Ballerini said after the brief hearing: “We have waited eight years for this moment.”

“We finally hope for a trial against those who caused Giulio all the pain in the world.”

Italian prosecutors believe four Egyptian officials were involved in the killing but have been unable to locate them or issue summonses, so they are being tried in absentia.

Tuesday’s hearing marks the second time the four Egyptian officials will face trial on charges related to Regeni’s death, after proceedings originally opened last year October 2021 but were immediately suspended after the judge questioned whether the prosecution would be legitimate unless it was clear that the defendants even knew they had been charged.

But Italy’s top court rejected the decision in September last year, saying Egypt’s lack of cooperation should not hamper the process.

Tranquillino Sarno, public defender for one of the defendants, called on Tuesday for continued efforts to contact the four officers.

He called on the court to ensure that the Egyptian authorities “can be officially informed about this trial in Italy, since today we don’t even know if they are still alive.”

Egypt has rejected claims that it has refused to help investigate Regeni’s death, saying its authorities have been cooperating with Italian officials and that its investigation has concluded that Regeni’s killers are unknown.

Officials also said the Italian investigation was not based on consistent evidence and denied any responsibility on the part of the country’s security apparatus.

Egyptian police previously claimed that Regeni was killed by gangsters who specialized in impersonating police officers, kidnapping foreigners and stealing their money, and that they were killed in a shootout with police. But Egyptian judges ruled that the men were not Regeni’s murderers.

The trial marks the first time that Egyptian officials have been tried abroad for alleged crimes that human rights groups say were committed on a larger scale in the North African country.

Following Tuesday’s preliminary motions, the chairman of the jury adjourned the proceedings to March 18.