(see related) Prosecutors in Cairo
have extended the detention of Ahmed Abdallah, a consultant for
the family of tortured and murdered Italian student Giulio
Regeni, by 15 days, judicial sources said on Wednesday.
The prosecutors had ordered an initial four-day detention
two days ago in a probe into alleged incitement to demonstrate
illegally against a border deal ceding two islands to Saudi
Arabia.
The family of Regeni, who are seeking the truth about his
brutal murder amid Egyptian stonewalling, have voiced concern
over Abdallah's detention.
On Tuesday they said that they were "anxious" over the
arrest of Abdallah, president of the board of the Egyptian
Commission for Rights and Freedom (ECRF), an NGO that is
providing consultancy work for the Regeni's lawyers.
Amnesty International confirmed Abdallah was arrested along
with activist Sanaa Seif and lawyer Malek Adly.
Egyptian special forces took Abdallah from his home on the
night of April 24 and he stands accused of instigation to
violence in order to overthrow the government, adhering to a
terrorist group, and promotion of terrorism, Amnesty said.
In light of Amnesty's communique, the Regeni family
expressed "concern over the recent wave of arrests in Egypt (of)
human rights activists, lawyers and journalists, some of them
directly engaged in the search for the truth about the
abduction, torture and murder of Giulio", their statement said.
Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge doctoral student
researching Egyptian trade unions, disappeared on January 25,
the heavily policed fifth anniversary of the uprising that
toppled former strongman Hosni Mubarak.
His beaten, burned, slashed, and mutilated body turned up
in a ditch on the city's outskirts on February 3.
Italy has complained of a lack of cooperation from Cairo in
getting to the bottom of the case and recently 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.
On Monday, which was a national holiday in Italy, Lower
House Speaker Laura Boldrini reiterated the call for truth and
justice for Regeni.
"We will never tire of calling for the truth. A democracy
does not compromise," she said during celebrations to mark
Italy's liberation from the Nazi occupation in World War II.
Meanwhile in the Egyptian capital, a journalist who
interviewed the relatives of the criminal gang allegedly found
to be in possession of Regeni's documents was among numerous
people detained following anti-government protests coinciding
with the anniversary of the end of the Israeli occupation of the
Sinai peninsula on Monday.
Basma Mostafa was one of six local and six foreign
journalists be to detained.
Also on Monday, an Egyptian television presenter drew
criticism after saying Regeni could 'go to hell'.
"What's all the fuss about?" asked Rania Yassin on the
Saudi television channel Al Hadath Al Arabiya.
"Is it the first time that someone has been killed?
Initially we sympathised, a young person had been killed. But
now you have pushed us into saying 'go to hell', we've had
enough of this story!"
Journalists in Cairo said Yassin's remarks were "out of
place and not to be publicised".
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