The Egyptian foreign ministry on
Thursday summoned Italian Ambassador to Cairo Maurizio Massari
in connection with "developments" in a probe into the death in
Cairo of Italian post-doctoral student Giulio Regeni, the MENA
news agency reported Thursday.
The body of Regeni, who went missing in Cairo on January
25, was found dead in a ditch on the outskirts of the Egyptian
capital.
Regeni, 28, was a Cambridge University doctoral student and
a visiting scholar at the American University in Cairo (AUC).
His body showed signs of cigarette burns, stab wounds,
torture, and of having suffered a "slow death", the Associated
Press quoted Egyptian prosecutors as saying.
Also on Thursday, Egyptian prosecution sources said
Regeni's remains had contusions around the eyes "as though he
had been punched (as well as) signs of torture and wounds all
over the body".
An autopsy has been completed and a report will be sent to
prosecutors at an unspecified date, prosecution sources said.
Orders have been given to immediately question Regeni's
friends as part of the investigation, the sources added.
The prosecution statements appear to be at odds with those
of a senior Egyptian investigator, who ruled out foul play.
"There is no suspicion of crime in the death of the young
Italian Giulio Regeni," General Khaled Shalabi, the director of
the Giza general investigations administration, was quoted as
saying by the 'Youm7' website.
"The body was found along the Cairo-Alessandria desert
road".
The site said Shalabi suggested Regeni may have been in a
road accident, and that he denied the student had been "shot or
stabbed".
Egyptian human rights lawyer Mohamed Sobhy wrote on his
Facebook page Wednesday night that the Egyptian interior
ministry was refusing to let him view Regeni's body, which was
at a mortuary in central Cairo and surrounded by "an impressive
national security deployment".
"We firmly request that Italian authorities collaborate in
the investigation on the death of our countryman in Cairo
because we want the truth to fully emerge," Italian Foreign
Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on the sidelines of a Syria
donors' conference in London.
Gentiloni said he had conveyed this request earlier in the
day to Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.
"We owe this to the family, which has been stricken in an
irreparable way," Gentiloni said.
Meanwhile in Rome, Egyptian Ambassador Amr Mostafa Kamal
Helmy "expressed profound condolences for the death of (Giulio)
Regeni, on behalf of his country" after being summoned by the
Italian foreign ministry, a statement said.
The statement added that "Egypt will provide maximum
cooperation to identify those responsible for this criminal
act".
Rome prosecutors will open a probe into Regeni's death,
ANSA sources said on Thursday.
Regeni's native town of Fiumicello in the northern Friuli
Venezia Giulia region has proclaimed citywide mourning and
canceled the feast of its patron saint on February 14. Flags on
public buildings had black mourning ribbons.
"It's as though one of our sons had died," said Mayor Ennio
Scridel.
"Anguish and condolences for the young interrupted life of
Giulio Regeni," tweeted Friuli Venezia Giulia Governor Debora
Serracchiani.
"Now we ask for light to be shed on this terrible
incident".
Regeni went missing in Cairo on the evening of January 25,
the day of demonstrations marking the fifth anniversary of the
Egyptian uprising that toppled former dictator Hosni Mubarak.
Italy's foreign ministry announced the disappearance, which
it said took place under "mysterious" circumstances, on Sunday.
On the day of the demonstrations, Egyptian authorities
arrested about a dozen people in the country's capital.
The Egyptian interior ministry revealed last week that of
191 disappearances listed by the country's National Council for
Human Rights (NCHR), 99 occurred in custody.
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