Monday 16 / September / 2024
Rome: Italy wants the unvarnished truth about the murder of an Italian student in Cairo, the prime minister's office said on Friday, after Egyptian authorities said they had found the young man's possessions in the hideout of a criminal gang.
Giulio Regeni's broken body was found last month on the outskirts of Cairo. Human rights groups have said signs of torture indicate the 28-year-old was killed by Egyptian security forces, an allegation Cairo has vigorously denied.
On Thursday, Egyptian authorities said a criminal gang that had been killed in a shootout had Regeni's bag and passport in its possession - a statement greeted with scepticism by some Italian politicians.
"The Italian government continues to be determined that the ongoing investigation sheds full and total light, without shadow of a doubt, on the death of the young Italian researcher," a source in Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's office said.
Italy sent a seven-person team to Cairo to investigate, but after almost two months they have not received all the evidence they say is needed to conduct their own investigation properly.
Alessandro Di Battista, a prominent deputy for Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, addressed a tweet to Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Friday suggesting the government was more concerned about Italian oil producer Eni's development of the giant Zohr gas field in Egypt than about Regeni.
"Gentiloni, do you want to say something about Regeni and the Egyptians' countless versions, or is oil more important than the murder of one of our citizens?"
Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta also entered the fray, saying on Twitter: "I'm sorry, I don't believe it. #Regeni. #Egypt. Do not stop asking for #truthforGiulioRegeni."
Regeni, 28, disappeared on January 25, the anniversary of the 2011 uprising that ended former president Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.
He had written articles critical of the Egyptian government, the Italian newspaper that published them said.
Egypt's Interior Ministry said security forces had targeted the criminal gang which had Regeni's bag and that it had "specialized in impersonating police officers, kidnapping foreigners and forcibly robbing them".
It said that a red handbag bearing the Italian flag was found, and inside it was Regeni's passport and other items such as a visa card two cell phones and a "feminine wallet" with the word love on it and a dark substance resembling drugs.
"A highly skilled investigation team was formed to uncover the mystery of several reported forced robberies and incidents of impersonating police officers," said the ministry in a statement.
The ministry named what it identified as four ring leaders of the gang; Tarek Saad Abd El Fatah, 52, described as a dangerous offender guilty of fraud and other offences, and his son Saad Tarek Saad, 26.
Also mentioned were Mustafa Bakr Awad, 60, charged with fraud and 20 varied offences, and Salah Ali Sayed, 40, who the ministry said had committed similar crimes.
The ministry said the gang had robbed several Egyptians, as well as a Nigerian identified as Rasheed G. and a Portuguese man named Carlos M., as well as David K., an Italian.
Egyptian forensics and prosecution officials have said Regeni's body showed signs of torture and that he was killed by a blow with a sharp object to the back of the head.
Shopkeepers in Regeni's neighborhood of Cairo said there were no signs that police in the area had been questioning people since his disappearance or death.
An Egyptian forensics official has told the public prosecutor's office the autopsy he conducted on an Italian student showed he was interrogated for up to seven days before he was killed, two prosecution sources had told Reuters.
The findings were the strongest indication yet that Regeni was killed by Egyptian security services because they point to interrogation methods such as burning with cigarettes in intervals over several days, which human rights groups say are the hallmark of the security services.
Interior Ministry spokesmen declined comment on this matter.
