An Egyptian TV station on Monday
showed a video in which Giulio Regeni, the Italian researcher
tortured and murdered in Cairo a year ago, is shown speaking to
the president of the Egyptian street sellers' trade union,
Mohamed Abdallah.
The video was filmed using a Cairo police micro-camera hidden
in one of Abdallah's shirt buttons, sources said.
They said this confirms for investigators the involvement of
the police in shooting the video.
In the exchange broadcast by the Sada El Balad TV, Abdallah
asks for money to treat his cancer-hit wife and Regeni refuses
the request but holds out the prospect of funding a gathering of
"information" on the trade union and its "needs".
The video, subsequently posted on Youtube, but broadcast
exclusively by Italian daily website Messagero.it, shows the
face of Regeni, who is heard speaking in good Arabic answering a
man speaking Egyptian who is evidently holding a half-hidden
cellphone.
"First video of Regeni with the president of the trade union
of the street sellers," reads a caption.
The unionist, among other things, says "my wife has cancer
and must have an operation and I have to look for money, it
doesn't matter where."
Regeni replies: "the money isn't mine. I can't use money for
any reason because I'm an academic"
When Abdallah insists, the researcher replies that the money
"come via Britain and the Egyptian centre that gives it to the
street traders".
"We must try to get ideas and obtain information before the
month of March, Regeni says in the video, which lasts 3 minutes
47 seconds.
When asked "what type of information do you want?", the
researcher replies: "what is the most important thing for you as
regards the trade union and what are the union's needs?
"I want information starting from this issue, the most
important for us, and ideas can be developed," Regeni says.
Regeni, 28, who disappeared on January 25 2016, the heavily
police fifth anniversary of the uprising that toppled former
strongman Hosni Mubarak, was doing doctoral research on trade
unions, a contentious issue in Egypt.
The Cambridge University PhD student, whose mutilated body
was found in a ditch on the road to Alexandria on February 3,
was last seen alive walking into a Cairo metro station.
At the weekend Egyptian prosecutors said Italian and German
experts could view CCTV footage of Regeni at the station.
In December Egyptian prosecutors gave their Italian
colleagues a transcript of testimony from Abdallah, who
"spontaneously told police of the contacts he had with
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.
In September Regeni was seen on a video talking to Abdallah
on December 7, 2015, when he reportedly presented a project to
obtain 10,000 Egyptian pounds in favour of street vendors.
Abdallah said last December that he reported Regeni to the
interior ministry before he was abducted, because he was
allegedly asking questions about national security.
In August the Reuters news agency said Abdallah was likely a
police informant on Regeni.
Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano told the House last
Wednesday that Italy will only stop when it gets to the truth
about Regeni's death.
"We'll continue to follow the path of firmness and
cooperation, the effort will continue with the same
determination there has been up till now," he said, stressing
that "so far the collaboration between Italian prosecutors and
the Cairo prosecutor's office has produced fruitful results".
Egypt has denied speculation its security forces, who are
frequently accused of brutally repressing opposition, were
involved in Regeni's death.
Egyptian and Italian prosecutors have been working on the
case together and there has been some recent progress in getting
cellphone and other records.
But Italy has yet to send its new ambassador to take up his
post in Cairo.
Italy has dismissed several earlier versions of Regeni's
death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff turned ugly
and kidnap for ransom that went wrong.
Egyptian police wiped out the alleged kidnapping gang and
said they found Regeni's documents in the home of a relative of
the alleged gang leader.
In October President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said Italy was
falsely suspecting Egyptian security forces in the Regeni case
because it is heeding "groundless" Egyptian media reports.
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