Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on
Friday said it was "important" to have an ambassador in Cairo
despite a call from the family of Giulio Regeni, an Italian
student tortured and murdered there in 2016, to recall the envoy
after the umpteenth rejection of Italian demands to hand over
suspects.
Rome prosecutors have named 10 members of Egypt's security
apparatus in Regeni's death.
"It's important to have an ambassador in Cairo, we understand
the pain of the Regeni family, but as a man of State I say we
are doing our utmost," said Di Maio.
"And the search for the truth is a clear objective we have in
front of us".
Di Maio said the Italian foreign ministry had asked the Egyptian
ambassador for "further inquiries".
He noted that Egyptian prosecutors had promised to up
cooperation with their Italian counterparts and said "we hope
deeds follow words".
Foreign
Undersecretary Manlio Di Stefano said Thursday that withdrawing
Italy's ambassador from
Cairo will not solve the case.
Also Thursday, Rome prosecutors said they were investigating
another five Egyptian intelligence officers in addition to the
five placed under
investigation in December 2018.
Regeni's parents urged the government to pull the envoy after a
videoconference between Cairo and Rome prosecutors on Wednesday
again failed to register any progress on Italy's request to hand
over the first five Egyptian security service officers.
Claudio and Paola Regeni described the latest summit as a flop
and said the ambassador should be withdrawn and a planned sale
of two frigates to Cairo stopped.
Di Stefano said Thursday: "I don't think that withdrawing the
ambassador is a solution.
"If you pull the envoy you effectively stop dialogue, but we
need to dialogue because we must have the truth on Regeni.
"Pressure can be exerted in a thousand ways, certainly not by
withdrawing the ambassador...an ambassador means something, it
isn't a pawn for blackmail".
The five new members of the Egyptian National Security Agency
have been placed under investigation after their names emerged
from phone transcripts supplied by Egyptian authorities several
months ago, sources at the Rome prosecutor's office said
Thursday.
Rome prosecutors said Wednesday that
Egypt's chief prosecutor was still only mulling a response to
their requests to quiz the first five intelligence service
officers over the Regeni case.
Rome prosecutors had a videoconference on the case on Wednesday,
after which chief prosecutor Michele Prestipino said their
requests focused among other things on "the choice of domicile
on the part of those probed, and on the presence and statements
made by one of those probed in Kenya in August 2017", when he
allegedly referred to the case.
Regeni's parents said the strategy of "cosying up" to Egypt and,
among other things, offering arms sales (the two frigates) had
been
shown to have "failed". They called for the ambassador to
Cairo to be recalled.
Wednesday's videoconference had "clearly failed," said Paola and
Claudio Regeni.
The Rome prosecutors have 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.
Last month Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di
Maio wrote to his Egyptian counterpart reiterating Italy's
demand for the truth about Regeni's death.
Cambridge doctoral researcher Regeni, 28, was found dead on
February 3 2016 a week after disappearing on the Cairo metro.
He had been tortured so badly that his mother said she only
recognised him by the tip of his nose.
Rome prosecutors placed the five members of Egypt's security
apparatus under investigation for the murder, sparking Cairo to
stop 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 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 Regeni as a spy.
Rome recently drew condemnation from Regeni's parents by
announcing the sale of the two frigates to Egypt.
Premier Giuseppe Conte said the deal was on a separate level
from cooperation on the Regeni case.
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