Members of an Egyptian gang that
abducted foreigners to rob them and were killed in Cairo by
security forces were "linked to the murder" of Italian
researcher Giulio Regeni, the site of Egyptian daily El Watan
said Thursday citing a security source.
"At the time of the arrest there was a shootout with police
that led to the death of five members of the band," the source
was quoted as saying in a statement in line with the version of
the shooting given by the Egyptian interior ministry.
The site of the authoritative pro-government daily
Al-Ahram, however, played down the possible link to the Regeni
case, while not ruling it out completely.
"A security source has denied information published on
websites linking the death of Italian academic Giulio Regeni to
the band specialised in kidnapping and robbing foreigners in New
Cairo," Al-Ahram reported.
"The source said that the security services continue to do
their job to get to the bottom of the murder of the Italian and
the crimes committed by this band and (establish) if there is a
relationship between them".
The Cambridge doctoral researcher's body was found in a
ditch on the road to Alexandria on February 3, nine days after
he disappeared on January 25, the heavily policed fifth
anniversary of the uprising that ousted former strongman Hosni
Mubarak.
Several accounts by Egyptian officials of Regeni's death
have been greeted with incredulity in Italy and Premier Matteo
Renzi's government has said that it will not accept a
"convenient truth" from Cairo.
A Giza prosecutor, for example, recently raised eyebrows
when he played down reports of torture and said that Regeni was
killed the day before his body was found on February 3 after
being subjected to one single bout of violence.
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