(ANSA) - Rome, February 8 - Rome prosecutors investigating the Cairo torture and murder of Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni on Monday heard testimony from the victim's parents and friends.
The parents told prosecutors their son never mentioned imminent risks for his own safety, but that he was aware that the political situation in Egypt was very tense ahead of the January 25 anniversary of the ousting of former dictator, Hosni Mubarak.
Seven Italian investigators have flown to Cairo to take part in a joint probe aimed at reconstructing a case that has appalled Italy and sent shock waves abroad. Regeni was not working for the secret services but was just an academic, the Italian investigators said.
Italy will not be satisfied with anything less than the truth about Regeni's slaying in Egypt, Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told LA Repubblica daily in an interview out Monday.
"We want those really responsible identified, and we want them punished according to the law," he said. "Italy has a duty to defend its citizens" in spite of the fact that Egypt is "a strategic partner" in the Middle East "with a key role in stabilizing the region", Gentiloni said.
Also on Monday, Italy's National Forensic Council (CNF) issued a statement about Regeni, who disappeared in Cairo on January 25 and who turned up dead last week. His body was returned to Italy at the weekend for a fresh autopsy on his tortured corpse.
"(His) death proves once again how much we need a constant commitment to monitor and denounce episodes of human rights violations," the CNF said. "The use of torture cannot be tolerated, nor any compromise in the name of reasons of State to justify it. The CNF calls on everyone to contribute to the defense of freedom of thought and respect for life," the statement said.
Regeni, 28, was studying at the American University in Cairo and freelancing for leftist Rome-based daily Il Manifesto on issues such as the trade union movement. After his death, the paper ran his last piece under his name, detailing difficulties facing independent labor unions, including the Center for Trade Unions and Workers Services.
He went missing January 25, and he was found dead in a ditch with signs of torture on the evening of February 3. A candlelight vigil was held in his northern home town of Fiumicello at the weekend.
On Sunday, The New York Times reported that the US will likely bring up the Regeni murder in meetings with Egyptian officials this week. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry meets US Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington, while Sarah B. Sewall, the State Department's top human rights official, travels to Cairo.
The case "(is) seen...as another alarming sign...in a country where arbitrary detention and torture have become increasingly common," the paper wrote.
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