File:Lighting candles for Giulio Regeni, in his memory and for truth and justice for him and for the hundreds of Egyptians forcibly disappeared each year. (32656659336).jpg

About one hundred people gathered in the English city of Cambridge for a vigil to mark the first anniversary of the discovery of the horrificly mutilated corpse of Cambridge university student, Giulio Regeni, at the edge of the Cairo-Alexandria desert road in Egypt.

Amnesty International Cambridge called on people to gather at 6 pm on 3rd February in front of Great St Mary's church in the city centre. Many brought tealights and candles and others placards with messages of solidarity and demands for justice - "Truth for Giulio Regeni".

Within hours of the discovery of his body, his family knew that he must have been the victim of the most horrific sustained violence. His corpse was so horrificly mutiliated that his mother explained he was virtually unrecognisable. She could only identiy him from the tip of his nose.

But what was equally striking was the location where the body had been dumped, on one of Egypt's busiest highways close to the watchtowers of a security services base.

On 25th January 2016, the fifth anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising, a thirty year old Italian national Giulio Regeni disappeared from the streets of Cairo.

He was a student of one of Britain's most prestigious universities - Cambridge and was researching the crucial role of trade unions in relation to Egyptian political power and workers' rights.

During his research he managed to cultivate contacts with numerous key individuals within several Independent trade unions which the Egyptian government planned to make illegal. He often expressed fear to his friends that he might be detained by Egyptian authorities.

It was not until 3 February 2016, nine days after his disappearance, that Regeni's half-naked and battered corpse was found dumped by the roadside. His mother remarked that Giulio's disfigured face carried "all the evils of the world."

A senior Egyptian police official, who it was later discovered had a prior criminal record for both torture and murder, announced that Regeni had been the victim of a road traffic accident.

However an Italian autopsy indicated that he had been tortured to death over a period of approximately one week and had suffered over 24 bone fractures, multiple stab wounds, numerous cigarette burns and sharp razor cuts and that all his finger and toe nails had been yanked out.