Egypt demands Italy extradite persons accused of smuggling antiquities

The Egyptian government called on INTERPOL and the Italian authorities to hand over Italian diplomats on charges of smuggling thousands of Egyptian artifacts to Italy, in a case dating back to the years between 2016 and 2018. In addition,Italy has demanded the extradition of the killers of researcher Giulio Regeni.

The Egyptian accusation memorandum included the arrests of Ladislav Otakar Sakakal, former consul of Italy in Luxor, and Massimiliano Spunzelli, the economic and commercial diplomatic attaché at the Italian embassy in Cairo.

Egyptian INTERPOL confirmed that Sakakal was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment and fined one million Egyptian pounds for smuggling nearly 22,000 artifacts into Italy duringthe period between 2016 and 2018.

The Egyptian Criminal Court issued a verdict against the defendants on 15 February, 2020, while sentencing the suspects’ Italian partners, namely actor Boutros Raouf Ghali, brother of Youssef Boutros Ghali, and both Ahmed Hussein Nagdi and Medhat Michel, to 15 years in prison.