No Egypt ties till Regeni solved - Fico

(ANSA) - Rome, November 29 - House Speaker Roberto Fico said Thursday the House would halt all diplomatic relations with the Egyptian parliament until there is a breakthrough and trial in the case of tortured and murdered Italian student Giulio Regeni.
    "With great regret I must announce that the Lower House will suspend all type of diplomatic relations with the Egyptian Parliament until there is a real breakthrough in investigations and a trial that resolves the case," he said.
    House caucuses later agreed to back Fico's move.
    "All the groups have decided to adhere to the Speaker's initiative," they said in a statement.
    Rome prosecutors said Wednesday they would be probing several Egyptian police and spies in the case. The Rome probe into Regeni has accelerated and the first suspects will be probed soon, sources said.
    Regeni, 28, disappeared in Cairo on January 25, 2016, the heavily policed fifth anniversary of the uprising that felled former strongman Hosni Mubarak, and his mutilated body was found in a ditch on the road to Alexandria on February 3.
    His parents said they could only recognise him "from the tip of his nose".
    Egypt has put out several explanations for his death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff turned ugly and a kidnapping for ransom in which the alleged gang, criminals but presumably innocent of the Regeni murder, were wiped out.
    Speaking after the latest and 10th meeting between Egyptian and Roman investigators earlier this week, the sources said Italian prosecutors plan on citing an unspecified number of Egyptian police and secret service agents who were recently identified by Italian special police units ROS and SCO.
    According to the Italian media, however, there will not be progress in the case unless Egypt cooperates at a diplomatic level.
    Among other things, the security personnel are accused of the various attempted cover-ups of the murder.
    Regeni, from the northern Friuli region, was researching Egyptian street sellers' unions for Cambridge University, a politically sensitive issue.
    The head of the Cairo street sellers' union said he fingered Regeni to scurity services as a spy.