The Italian government is closely
monitoring the torture and murder case of Italian student Giulio
Regeni in Egypt and is determined to make sure the investigation
sheds full and unequivocal light onto the circumstances of his
death, sources at Premier Matteo Renzi's office said Friday.
As Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni insisted "we want the
truth", Regeni's parents said they were "sure" the government
would react to an "outrageous set-up" - referring to last
night's statement from the Egyptian interior ministry that it
has recovered Regeni's passport and evidence that he was
kidnapped by an Egyptian criminal gang of five, all of whose
members were killed in a police shootout on Thursday.
Italian investigators in Cairo said the case is far from
closed.
"There is no definitive element confirming they were
responsible," the Italian investigators said, adding Egypt has
yet to pass on crucial investigation data to Italy.
They also pointed to inconsistencies in Egypt's latest
version of what happened to Regeni. First, kidnappers would be
unlikely to hold on to compromising evidence such as a victim's
passport for months after the victim's death. Second, kidnappers
would be unlikely to torture a victim over the course of a week
- as Regeni was - if their only purpose was to obtain a ransom.
Third, it is not credible that an entire gang of alleged
kidnappers was killed by police, thereby preventing any
possibility of getting corroborating statements from any of
them.
Rome Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone said the new
evidence supplied by Egyptian authorities didn't prove anything.
"The Rome prosecutor's office believes that the elements
thus far communicated by the Egyptian prosecutors to the team of
Italian investigators present in Cairo are not fit to shed light
on the death of Giulio Regeni or to identify those responsible
for the murder," he said.
The Rome prosecutor's office therefore believes that is it
"therefore necessary for the investigation to proceed, as is
shown also by the statement just issued by the Egyptian interior
ministry" and Rome prosecutors "are waiting for the Cairo
prosecutor general to transmit the information and evidence, for
some time requested and urged, and other (material) that will be
requested as soon as possible concerning what has been suggested
to our investigators".
The parents of Giulio Regeni told ANSA they were "wounded
and embittered by the umpteenth attempt at a cover-up on the
part of the Egyptian authorities" and they were "certain of the
firmness with which our government will react to this outrageous
set-up".
They noted that their son was "barbarically" killed after
being "abducted in Cairo exactly two months ago, after which his
body was discovered after eight days of torture".
Regeni's parents went on: "we are certain of the firmness
with which our government will react to this outrageous set-up
which, furthermore, cost the lives of five people, just as we
know that the institutions, our prosecutors and individual
citizens will not leave us alone to ask and demand truth. That
is owed not only to Giulio but to the dignity of this country".
The Cambridge doctoral researcher's burned and mutilated
body was found in a ditch on the road to Alexandria on February
3, nine days after he disappeared on January 25, the heavily
policed fifth anniversary of the uprising that ousted former
strongman Hosni Mubarak.
"We must continue digging and following our leads to find
definitive evidence and eliminate doubt," Italian investigative
sources said.
The Egyptian interior ministry said in last night's
statement that Regeni's passport was found in the home of the
sister of one of the deceased alleged gang members, named as
Tarek Saad Abdel Fatah, 34.
The alleged criminal gang posed up as cops to kidnap
foreigners, the ministry said. Police searched the home of the
sister of the suspected ringleader because "investigations
uncovered evidence he went to see her from time to time", the
ministry said. She lives in the Nile Delta north of Cairo, it
said.
"Security forces have finished their investigation and
apprised the Italian side of the results," the ministry said.
"We thank the Italian side for its full cooperation...(which)
contributed to this result," Egyptian news agency MENA cited the
ministry as saying on Thursday.
The sister and the wife of the alleged kidnap gang leader
said Regeni was killed while resisting a robbery, Egyptian
national prosecution sources told ANSA on Friday. The two women
named as sister Rasha Saad Abdel Fatah and wife Mabrouka Ahmed
Afifi "confirmed the suspect committed the act in order to rob
(Regeni), not kill him," the sources said. "The victim resisted,
which prompted the accused and his fellows to attack him,
causing his death".
The head of the allaged kidnapping gang had a fake
ID document showing him to belong to the Egyptian security
forces, the MENA news agency said Friday, citing an interior
ministry statement.
"A fake interior ministry ID document bearing the name
Tarek Saad Abdel Fatah issued by the department of general
security" was found during a search in the suspected leader's
home in the Sharqiyya area, it said.
On Friday evening Foreign Minister tweeted that Italy was
insisting to get at the truth about Regeni's torture and murder.
"#Regeni Italy insists: we want the truth," the minister
tweeted.
Egyptian government critics and human rights organisations
have suggested Regeni was tortured and killed by a
security-forces cell because of his research work with the trade
union movement and the opposition, like many others.
Regeni's body had signs of torture all over it, including
cigarette burns, multiple fractures, cuts under the soles of the
feet, clipped ears, a torn fingernail and a torn toenail.
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