A preliminary hearing is expected in Rome on Tuesday in the trial of 4 suspects being tried in absentia for the murder of Italian academic Giulio Regeni in Egypt in 2016. The hearing will determine whether National Security General Tariq Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim, Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif, can face trial. Giulio Regeni’s beaten and bloodied body was discovered in February 2016, dumped in a ditch at the side of a road heading to Alexandria. The hearing will be closed to the press. This hearing was postponed last April.