The family of Giulio Regeni, the
Cambridge research student tortured and murdered in Egypt, on
Wednesday voiced "sorrow and disappointment for the refusal of
his Cambridge tutors" to answer Italian prosecutors' questions
on the case.
"We entrusted our son Giulio to the university community of
Cambridge and we expected the utmost, concrete solidarity from
this community, and therefore total collaboration in the search
fror the truth on his kidnapping and terrible murder in Cairo
while he was doing research work for the university," the family
said in a statement.
Paola and Claudia Regeni urged "all, without omerta', to
sincerely and actively work to get at the truth on Giulio's
barbaric murder, and to collaborate to this end with Rome
prosecutors, in whom we place our utmost confidence".
They said "those who believe in the rigour of research, the
duty of solidarity, and the safeguard of human rights cannot
shun the moral and civic duty to contribute to the
investigations".
Cambridge University teachers supervising Regeni declined
to answer Italian prosecutors' questions on emails about his
work on Egyptian trade unions, judicial sources said Tuesday.
Regeni's supervisor Maha Abdelrahman and others availed
themselves of the option of not answering questions from Rome
assistant prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco and security police, the
sources said.
Prosecutors had been hoping the emails might shed light on
Regeni's contacts and work with the trade union movement, which
some think may have been linked to his murder.
Regeni, 28, went missing on the night of January 25, the
heavily policed fifth anniversary of the uprising that toppled
former strongman Hosni Mubarak, and his burned, mutilated, and
partially unclothed body turned up in a ditch on the road to
Alexandria on February 3.
Egypt has repeatedly denied its security forces were behind
the torture and murder of Regeni, a Cambridge doctoral student
researching Egyptian trade unions.
Egyptian authorities have offered up a series of unlikely
explanations ranging from a car crash, to a gay lovers' quarrel
gone wrong, to a kidnap for ransom that turned deadly.
Italy has rejected all those versions.
Human rights groups say Regeni is among some 500 people who
have disappeared in Egypt over the last eight months.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
