Regeni Egypt investigators in Rome

(ANSA) - Rome, December 6 - Egyptian investigators probing the torture and murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni are attending a two-day summit with Rome prosecutors in the Italian capital and are expected to meet with Regeni's parents, sources aid Tuesday.
    The Egyptian delegation, led by Egyptian Prosecutor-General Nabil Ahmed Sadek, is meeting Rome Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone and Assistant Prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco to update each other on the progress in their respective probes.
    Regeni's parents told La Repubblica daily recently they were prepared to see anyone in Egypt, including Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, if it could help get to the truth about their son's death.
    "By now we are used to interpreting every piece of news as a possible cover-up," they said, voicing the fear that "they may be cooking up another great mise en scene, with 'well-qualified' scapegoats".
    The Regenis said they had so far received "hazy" responses from the political world, "along with a lot of condolences", but added: "We are 'strong', as Pope Francis told us, and ready to do anything to get a glimmer of truth".
    Egyptian prosecutors on November 2 handed over to visiting Rome prosecutors documents belonging to Regeni.
    Regeni's passport, two Cambridge University cards and his ATM card were handed over at a meeting in Cairo which Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni called "positive".
    Egyptian prosecutors said they found the documents in a March 24 raid on the home of a relative of an alleged kidnapping gang wiped out by police and briefly blamed by Egypt for Regeni's murder - one of a series of versions of events Italy has not accepted.
    Gentiloni tweeted after the prosecutors' meeting: "Positive visit to Cairo by Rome prosecutor. Giulio's documents returned to his family. The work continues to establish the truth".
    Gentiloni has said the Regeni case is "an open wound" for Italy.
    He said "we got some signs of hope from Egyptian judicial authorities in September which Rome prosecutors interpreted as a willingness to collaborate," but "we are not satisfied, and it's no accident that we withdrew our ambassador in Egypt and we have not yet sent one back to Cairo".
    Earlier in October President Sisi said Italy was falsely charging Egyptian security forces in the Regeni case because it is heeding "groundless" Egyptian media reports.
    "I say to those who hold dear the interests of Egypt, don't hurt our interests. Italy, in accusing the Egyptian security services of killing Giulio Regeni, relied on groundless information published by Egyptian media. The same thing happened on the Russian air disaster (in Sinai)," Sisi said.
    The Cambridge graduate student, 28, born in the town of Fiumicello in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region around Trieste, went missing on the night of January 25, the heavily policed fifth anniversary of the uprising that toppled former strongman Hosni Mubarak.
    His burned, mutilated, and partially unclothed body turned up in a ditch on the road to Alexandria on February 3.
    Rights groups including Amnesty International have said he is among hundreds of people who have disappeared in Egypt over the past year.
    Cairo has repeatedly denied the allegations that elements of the Egyptian state were behind the murder, offering a series of explanations ranging from a car crash to a gay lovers' quarrel gone wrong to the purported kidnap for ransom.
    Italy has rejected these versions and is pressing to get at the truth, withholding its new ambassador from taking up his post in Cairo.