Egypt’s interior ministry files police complaint against Reuters over ‘publishing false news’

Egypt’s ministry of interior filed a police complaint against Reuters’ Cairo bureau on Friday, accusing it of “publishing false news using anonymous sources” after a Thursday report by the agency that quoted unnamed security sources as saying that murdered student Giulio Regeni had been in police custody prior to his death.

In an official statement released on Thursday, the ministry’s spokesperson described the Reuters report as “unfounded.”

Reuters reported that several police and intelligence sources, who spoke to the agency on condition of anonymity, said that the PhD student had been detained by police on the 25 January at a police station near Ramsis Square in Cairo and had been held for thirty minutes before authorities transferred him to the headquarters of the interior ministry.

Regeni vanished from the streets of Cairo in the evening hours of 25 January, and his dead body was discovered in a ditch on the outskirts of the city nine days later, showing signs of extensive torture.

The Egyptian authorities have been conducting an investigation into the murder of the Italian student, but no suspects have so far been charged.

source: Ahram Online