Egyptian prosecutors have handed
over to Rome prosecutors "all the documentation" on Giulio
Regeni requested in September, a joint statement said Wednesday
after a two-day summit in Rome on the Italian student tortured
and murdered in Cairo earlier this year.
In the fifth meeting between the two sets of prosecutors,
the Egyptians handed over a transcript of testimony from the
head of the Cairo street sellers' independent union, who
"spontaneously told police of the contacts he had with Giulio
Regeni until January 22, 2016", three days before he
disappeared.
The Egyptians also handed over a video of a meeting with
Regeni shot by the union head at the beginning of January, the
statement said.
Rome prosecutors handed over information gleaned from
Cambridge University researcher Regeni's Italian and British
bank accounts, the statement said.
It said the prosecutors would "continue to work together
until the truth is established" about Regeni's death.
Regeni, 28, disappeared on January 25 and his tortured body
was found in a ditch outside Cairo on February 3.
The news came a day after Regeni's parents met with the head
of the Egyptian delegation, Prosecutor-General Nabil Ahmed
Sadek, for a couple of hours on the sidelines of the Rome
summit.
Sadek vowed not to rest "until those responsible for Regeni's
murder are caught".
Claudio and Paola Regeni said they appreciated Sadek's
"gesture" and recalled their son's "deep love for the Arab world
and its culture".
Sadek and his prosecutors met Rome Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe
Pignatone and Assistant Prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco to update
each other on the progress in their respective probes.
Regeni's parents told La Repubblica daily recently they were
prepared to see anyone in Egypt, including Egyptian President
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, if it could help get to the truth about
their son's death.
"By now we are used to interpreting every piece of news as
a possible cover-up," they said, voicing the fear that "they may
be cooking up another great mise en scene, with 'well-qualified'
scapegoats".
The Regenis said they had so far received "hazy" responses
from the political world, "along with a lot of condolences", but
added: "We are 'strong', as Pope Francis told us, and ready to
do anything to get a glimmer of truth".
Egyptian prosecutors on November 2 handed over to visiting
Rome prosecutors documents belonging to Regeni.
Regeni's passport, two Cambridge University cards and his
ATM card were handed over at a meeting in Cairo which Foreign
Minister Paolo Gentiloni called "positive".
Egyptian prosecutors said they found the documents in a
March 24 raid on the home of a relative of an alleged kidnapping
gang wiped out by police and briefly blamed by Egypt for
Regeni's murder - one of a series of versions of events Italy
has not accepted.
Gentiloni tweeted after the prosecutors' meeting:
"Positive visit to Cairo by Rome prosecutor. Giulio's documents
returned to his family. The work continues to establish the
truth".
Gentiloni has said the Regeni case is "an open wound" for
Italy.
He said "we got some signs of hope from Egyptian judicial
authorities in September which Rome prosecutors interpreted as a
willingness to collaborate," but "we are not satisfied, and it's
no accident that we withdrew our ambassador in Egypt and we have
not yet sent one back to Cairo".
In October President Sisi said Italy was falsely charging
Egyptian security forces in the Regeni case because it is
heeding "groundless" Egyptian media reports.
"I say to those who hold dear the interests of Egypt, don't
hurt our interests. Italy, in accusing the Egyptian security
services of killing Giulio Regeni, relied on groundless
information published by Egyptian media. The same thing happened
on the Russian air disaster (in Sinai)," Sisi said.
The Cambridge graduate student, 28, born in the town of
Fiumicello in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region around Trieste,
went missing on the night of January 25, the heavily policed
fifth anniversary of the uprising that toppled former
strongman Hosni Mubarak.
His burned, mutilated, and partially unclothed body turned
up in a ditch on the road to Alexandria on February 3.
Rights groups including Amnesty International have said he
is among hundreds of people who have disappeared in Egypt over
the past year.
Cairo has repeatedly denied the allegations that elements
of the Egyptian state were behind the murder, offering a series
of explanations ranging from a car crash to a gay lovers'
quarrel gone wrong to the purported kidnap for ransom.
Italy has rejected these versions and is pressing to get at
the truth, withholding its new ambassador from taking up his
post in Cairo.
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