Premier Giorgia Meloni and Foreign
Minister Antonio Tajani have been called as witnesses on April 3
in the case of Giulio Regeni, the Italian student tortured to
death in Cairo in early 2016, judicial sources said Monday.
Meloni and Tajani have been called by a lawyer for Regeni's
parents to report to a Rome preliminary hearings judge (GUP)
about Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's asserted
willingness to collaborate with Italian authorities in the case,
which has ground to a halt amid Egypt's refusal to release the
addresses of four Egyptian intelligence officers so they can be
notified they are being tried in absentia for the
January-February 2016 abduction, torture and murder of the
28-year-old Friuli born Cambridge University doctoral
researcher, whose work into trade unions was politically
sensitive and who was so badly mutilated his mother only
recognised him by the tip of his nose.
Sisi has repeatedly promised to work with Rome prosecutors over
the case but no such collaboration has been forthcoming.
A Rome trial of the four officers - National Security General
Tariq Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed
Ibrahim and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif
- has been stymied by unsuccessful efforts to inform them they
are on trial, because of Egypt dragging its heels on the case.
Regeni's parents have described Italian officials' apparent
willingness to believe Sisi's reiterated willingness to
cooperate in the case is at best naive, and at worst
self-serving.
They have condemned continued Italian cooperation with Cairo on
energy and arms, among other things.
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