Immediate measures if no Regeni breakthrough says Gentiloni

(ANSA) - Rome, April 5 - Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told the Senate on the Cairo murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni Tuesday that "unless there is a change of pace (by Egypt), the government is ready to react by adopting immediate and proportional measures".
    Gentiloni said that "for reasons of State we will not let Italy's dignity be trampled on".
    Gentiloni said that "the dossier sent to Italy at the beginning of March by the Egyptian investigators was lacking, it lacked at least two of the five chapters requested by Italian prosecutors: the data on Regeni's phone traffic and those on the Cairo metro video".
    Gentiloni said that "important" Rome meetings with an Egyptian delegation Thursday and Friday "could be decisive for the development of the investigations". He said "Regeni's murder shook our consciences and the whole country because the life of an exemplary Italian was cut short, because of the way in which he was atrociously tortured and killed, and for the lesson in composure of his parents". Gentiloni said that "we will only stop when we find the truth, the real one and not a convenient one".
    He said Italy would not lend credit to "distorted" truths and wanted to get the missing information.
    A 2,000-page dossier has been prepared in view of this week's visit by a delegation of Egyptian investigators to Rome to share information on Regeni's murder, daily newspaper 'Al Shourouk reported Monday, citing security sources.
    Regeni, 28, went missing in Cairo on January 25, the heavily policed fifth anniversary of the uprising that ousted former strongman Hosni Mubarak, and his mutilated body was found on February 3 in a ditch on the city's outskirts.
    Egypt has denied speculation its security forces, who are frequently accused of brutally repressing opposition, were involved in the death of the Cambridge doctoral student.
    Italian and Egyptian investigators will meet in Rome to discuss the case of the murder of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni on April 7 and 8, the interior ministry's department of public security said on Monday.
    Two magistrates and three police officials will take part for the Egyptian delegation.
    The meetings had been expected to take place two days earlier, on Tuesday.
    Rome has complained of a lack of cooperation over the case after a series of possible Egyptian versions of how Regeni might have died met incredulity in Italy.
    Egyptian media reported last week that Egyptian authorities are set to admit at the keenly awaited Rome meeting that they kept tabs on Regeni before he was tortured and murdered.
    At that 'summit', Rome prosecutors have said they will ask for the phone and cellphone records of Regeni's friends and acquaintances to help reconstruct his last days.
    An "exhaustive dossier" that an "Egyptian security delegation" will hand over to Rome prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone will contain the results of investigations by security forces into meetings which Regeni - who was working as a visiting scholar at the American University in Cairo - had with street traders and trade unionists in the Egyptian capital, Egyptian daily Al-Akhbar reported on Friday.
    The most recent Egyptian version of Regeni's death - which however was reportedly disowned by the interior ministry over the weekend - was that he was murdered by a gang specialising in kidnapping foreigners who, in turn, were killed by the security forces.
    Al-Akhbar said the Egyptians' dossier will include evidence from Regeni's friends and "many documents and important information" including photos and "all the investigations on Regeni from his arrival in Cairo to his disappearance".
    Regeni's mother said last week she had seen "the world's evil" on her son's battered face.
    "At the mortuary I only recognized Giulio by the tip of his nose," Paola Deffendi told a press conference at the Senate in Rome.
    "What they did to him is unspeakable".
    "In Italy we have not seen torture since (the time of) anti-Fascism, but Giulio was not at war - he went to do research," Deffendi added.
    She continued by saying the family trusts in a firm response from the government should Egyptian investigators fail to come up with convincing answers at the meetings with their Italian colleagues in Rome.
    "If (the meetings) turn out to be empty we trust in a strong response from our government - a very, very strong one," she said. "We have been waiting for answers about Giulio since January 25".
    The Italian media has speculated the government might recall its ambassador from Cairo or even go as far as imposing economic sanctions if Egypt keeps up the alleged stonewalling on the case.
    Egyptian government critics and human rights organisations have suggested the Friuli-born student 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.