It is necessary for Italy to keep its ambassador in Cairo to keep Egyptian authorities "involved" in solving the torture and murder of student Giulio Regeni, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio told parliament Thursday.
The parents of the 28-year-old Cambridge doctoral researcher, found dead in a ditch outside the Egyptian capital a week after disappearing on the city metro on January 25, 2016, have demanded the envoy be recalled after Egypt again failed to hand over 10 Egyptian security officers which Rome prosecutors have implicated in the case.
"We believe it is necessary to constantly involve at the Cairo authorities at the highest level," Di Maio told the parliamentary foreign affairs committees.
He said it was "misleading to believe that having our ambassador in Cairo means not seeking the truth, and vice versa it is misleading to think that withdrawing him is necessary to arrive at the truth".
Di Maio said "the whole government understands the grief of the Regeni family but the ambassador's presence is part of the government's strategy, also for those who like (Egyptian Bologna university student) Patrick Zaky are still there".
A few months ago the Rome prosecutors named major Magdi Ibrahim Abdel al-Sharif, captain Osan Helmy, and three other members of the Egyptian National Security Agency as being suspected of having had a hand in Regeni's death.
Earlier this month they said they wanted to quiz another five security officers.
Regeni's parents, Claudio Regeni and Paola Deffendi, described the latest meeting between Rome and Cairo prosecutors as a flop and also said the sale of two frigates to Egypt must be stopped, as well as pulling the envoy.
Regeni, was found dead on February 3 2016 a week after disappearing on the Cairo metro on January 25, the heavily policed fifth anniversary of the uprising that ousted former strongman Hosni Mubarak..
He had been tortured so badly that his mother said she only recognised him by the tip of his nose.
When Rome prosecutors placed the first five members of Egypt's security apparatus under investigation for the murder, Cairo stopped all significant cooperation in the probe into the Friuli-born researcher's death.
At various times Egypt has advanced various explanations for his death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff and abduction and murder by an alleged kidnapping gang that was conveniently wiped out after Regeni's documents were planted in their lair.
Regeni was researching Cairo street sellers unions for the British university, a politically sensitive subject. The head of the street hawkers union had fingered him as a spy.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups have said Regeni is just one of thousands disappeared every year by the Egyptian regime.
They have recently voiced concern over Zaky, who has allegedly been tortured after being accused of epsionage.
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