'Joint effort' to get at truth in Regeni probe

(ANSA) - Rome, March 14 - Rome Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone landed in Egypt Monday amid hopes Egyptian authorities will improve cooperation with Italy on a slow-moving joint probe into the torture and murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni.
    After Pignatone's meeting with Egypt's prosecutor general (PG), Nabil Sadeq, an Egyptian investigator told ANSA the talks had been "positive" and that all leads were "open" to be followed.
    And a joint statement said "a joint effort will be made to get at the truth".
    Pignatone and Sadeq "exchanged important information" and agreed to "boost mutual cooperation to define the reality of events and succeed in identifying those responsible" for Regeni's death, according to the joint statement.
    Sadeq will now head up the probe on the Egyptian side and will personally report to Italian investigators, the statement said.
    Italian RAI State TV camera troupe was forced to cancel footage of the exterior of the building where the meeting took place.
    Shortly before Pignatone flew in, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said the level of collaboration shown thus far by Cairo had been insufficient.
    Gentiloni voiced the hope that Pignatone's trip would bring finally a definite improvement to cooperation with Egyptian authorities who have been probing the death by torture of researcher Regeni.
    "Up until now, cooperation hasn't been sufficient. I'm convinced that this meeting can at least try to lay the basis for a more intense and satisfying collaboration," Gentiloni said of Pignatone's trip to Egypt along with assistant Rome prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco.
    Last Thursday Egypt finally approved the long-awaited arrival of the two senior Rome prosecutors to take a new lead in a thus-far sluggish joint probe into the murder of the 28-year-old Regeni.
    The Cambridge doctoral researcher's body was found in a ditch on the road to Alessandria 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.
    The team from the Giza prosecutor's office investigating Regeni's death brought a file to the Cairo meeting with Pignatone and Egyptian Prosecutor General Nabil Sadeq, ANSA sources said. The dossier contains the testimony of a witness who said he saw Regeni argue with another person the day before he disappeared. It also includes all the other evidence collected, including the testimony of Regeni's friends and neighbours and the person who found his body.
    Regeni had a "punch-up" with "another foreigner" near the Italian consulate in Cairo a day before he disappeared on January 25, Egyptian media reported Monday.
    A local engineer, Mohamed Fawzi, told Cairo prosecutors that a "heated discussion" between Regni and "another foreigner" degenerated into a "fistfight", according to independent Egyptian daily Al Masri al Youm.
    The engineer, Fawzi, said he witnessed the whole thing, the daily said.
    The foreigner who allegedly had the bust-up with Regeni was "well built and of athletic build", Fawzi told Egyptian television Sada el Balad on Monday.
    "I saw two foreigners who were arguing and shouting," he told the local broadcaster.
    One was "well built and of athletic build" and he was punching up the other "smaller" man, Fawzi said. "I found out that it was Giulio Regeni only after seeing his photos and realised that he was the one who had been beaten up by the bigger man. The row lasted just 2-3 minutes," he said, adding that he didn't know what language the men had been talking in. Fawzi also said he saw two "modern videocameras" at the entrance to the consulate that may have recorded the fistfight. The witness added that the Italians "know who the murderer is and why he was killed".
    "Someone may have wanted to damage relations between Egypt and Italy," Fawzi said. Anonymous sources told the Associated Press that the incident was probably caught on the consulate's CCTV cameras but sources told ANSA those cameras have not been working since July.
    The meeting between PG Sadeq and Pignatone "was positive", Giza prosecutor Ahmed Nagui told ANSA after the meeting. Egypt and Italy "have the same goal, to find those responsible" for Regeni's murder, he said. The two sides "exchanged information on the murder" and "all leads are open to be followed", said Nagui.
    Some Egyptian suggestions about Regeni's death have spurred incredulity in Rome.
    Last week the European Parliament voted to urge Egypt to cooperate more fully in the investigation.
    Regeni's body was found with signs of torture including cuts all over, including to the soles of his feet, clipped ears, cigarette burns, a torn-out fingernail and a torn-out toenail, and multiple fractures including a broken nose.
    Among other things, Egyptian authorities have claimed the torn nails and clipped ears were not the signs of torture but of taking tissue for post-mortem testing.