An Egyptian interior ministry
source on Thursday denied media reports that Giulio Regeni, the
Italian student tortured and murdered in Cairo, had been stopped
by police and handed over to the security services, according to
the website of the Egyptian daily Youm7.
The source said "the police did not arrest Regeni nor detain
him in any police station and everything that is repeated in
this regard are only rumours aimed at damaging the security
apparatus in Egypt and weakening State institutions," the
website said.
Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge doctoral student working on
Egyptian trade unions, disappeared on January 25, the heavily
policed fifth anniversary of the uprising that toppled former
strongman Hosni Mubarak, and his mutilated body was found in a
ditch on the road to Alexandria on February 3.
Italy has recalled its ambassador to Egypt for consultations
after the investigation into Regeni's death stalled, with Egypt
proffering unlikely versions of his death that included a car
crash, a gay lovers' quarrel, and a kidnapping for ransom gone
wrong.
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