Egyptian magistrates on Sunday gave
Italian investigators probing the Cairo torture and murder of
student Giulio Regeni more phone records and written testimony,
judicial sources said Monday.
The Italians went to Cairo for a fresh summit that marked a
renewal of contact after an April summit in Rome ended in
failure.
Regeni disappeared on January 25, the heavily policed fifth
anniversary of the uprising that toppled former strongman Hosni
Mubarak.
Italy has complained of a lack of cooperation from Cairo in
getting to the bottom of the case after Regeni's mutilated body
was found in a ditch on the road to Alexandria on February 3.
Egypt has proffered several unlikely versions of his death
that included a car crash, a gay lovers' quarrel, and a
kidnapping for ransom gone wrong.
Italy has yet to send its ambassador - recalled after the
failure of the Rome summit - back to Cairo.
In the last few days Egyptian magistrates sent phone
records of five Egyptian citizens including that of Mohamed
Abdallah, leader of the informal traders' union.
Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge doctoral student
researching Egyptian trade unions, attended a meeting organised
by the union on December 14.
It was not to be ruled out, sources said, that the other
phone records handed over Sunday were those of a further eight
people whose records Italy had asked for via an international
diplomatic request.
The documents handed over to Italian prosecutors and police
are all in Arabic.
The Italian investigators are set to get back to Rome later
Monday and on Tuesday will meet with assistant Rome prosecutor
Sergio Colaiocco to brief him on what happened in Cairo during
their three-day visit.
Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said: "I'm waiting for an
assessment from the prosecutor's office. I am certain that the
prosecutor will issue an evaluation as soon as possible.
"The fact that contacts have resumed is a positive per se,
but we have to see what's inside (the files)".
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