Italy: cooperation on Regeni case is ‘essential’ to relations with Egypt

Italy says judicial cooperation to resolve the case of Italian student Giulio Regeni, who was murdered in Egypt early in 2016, is “essential” to relations with Egypt, Italian news website AnsaMed reported on Monday.

Italy is “evaluating the development of judicial cooperation” with the Egyptian authorities, “which for us is essential for the continuation of a certain kind of relationship with Egypt,” Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano was quoted as saying on Monday.

Regeni was in Cairo conducting graduate research on independent trade unions when he went missing on 25 January, the fifth anniversary of Egypt’s 2011 Revolution. His body was found bearing signs of torture by a roadside on the outskirts of Cairo on 3 February.

Egypt has strongly denied claims that security forces were involved in Regeni’s murder.

Prosecutors from both countries have been investigating the case over the past year, but Rome has withdrawn its ambassador to Cairo in protest over the slow progress of investigations.

Source: Ahram Online