Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni
on Wednesday said Egypt must improve its investigative
cooperation with Italy on the Giulio Regeni case, or Italy would
"take the next steps".
Regeni, 28, was an Italian doctoral student who was
tortured and murdered in Cairo earlier this year.
"Faced with lack of cooperation, we'll evaluate the
possible measures, but we hope that relations between Italy and
Egypt can make way for the improvements necessary. If that's not
the case, I repeat, we will be very ready to consider the
consequences," Gentiloni told Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
Gentiloni rejected the various stories presented by the
Egyptian government to explain Regeni's killing.
"The endless stream of improbable leads multiplies the
family's pain and offends the entire country," he said.
Regeni went missing in the Egyptian capital on January 25,
and his mutilated body was found on February 3 in a ditch on the
city's outskirts.
In the interview, Gentiloni also spoke of Italy's position
in working towards political stability in Libya, and said it was
"not an Italian position but one of the entire international
community".
"It needs to be pursued, taking into account that time
isn't unlimited," Gentiloni said.
He said military action as the only option in Libya could
be "counterproductive".
"There are 5,000 Daesh (ISIS) fighters, but 200,000 local
and Islamic militia members, many of whom could transfer to the
ranks of the jihadists," he said.
"Today Daesh is seen as a foreign presence being fought by
Libyan forces. The danger is in increasing the water they're
swimming in with an exclusively military response".
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