Rome Prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco said Monday the fact that the four Egyptian security officials accused of Giulio Regeni’s murder are unlikely to be at their trial in Italy will not mean the proceedings are merely a show.

“The absence of the defendants will not reduce the trial to a simulacrum,” Colaiocco told a Rome court as he requested the officials be indicted.

“Being able to publicly reconstruct the events and individual responsibilities in a criminal trial is to a constitutional, supranational obligation.

“It is an obligation that the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office has proudly tried to fulfil with total conviction since the beginning of the investigation.”