The parents of Giulio Regeni, an Italian researcher who was tortured and murdered in Cairo in 2016, have thanked Italian journalist Corrado Augias for returning his Legion of Honour award to France.
Augias returned the award in protest after it emerged that France had given the same honour to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi earlier this year.
"Augias's example is one of marvellous coherence and of support to the cause of civil rights," Paola and Claudio Regeni told RAI television.
Rome prosecutors said last week that they had completed their probe into the case and they are expected to file charges against four Egyptian intelligence service members.
At various times Egypt has advanced differing explanations for Regeni's death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff and abduction and murder by an alleged kidnapping gang that was wiped out after Regeni's documents were planted in their lair.
The student was researching Cairo street sellers unions for the Cambridge University, a politically sensitive subject.
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