Italy has "strong attention" for he
cases of Giulio Regeni, and Italian student abducted, tortured
and murdered in Cairo in early 2016, and of Patric Zaki, an
Egyptian student at Bologna University who has been charged with
subversion in Egypt since February 2020, Premier Giorgia Meloni
told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi on the sidelines of
the CoP27 meeting in Egypt Monday, the premier's office said.
It was the first visit to Egypt by an Italian premier since
Regeni's murder, which has strained bilateral ties amid a Rome
prosecution request to hand over four Egyptian intelligence
officers suspected of torturing the 28-year-old Friuli-born
Cambridge University researcher to death because they thought he
was spying on Cairo due to his work with street unions.
The bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Sharm el Sheikh
summit on climate change, the premier's office said, gave Meloni
an "opportunity to raise the issue of respect for human rights
and to underline Italy's strong attention on the cases of Giulio
Regeni and Patrick Zaki," who is accused of spreading fake news
and calling for unauthorised protests.
The Italian justice ministry said last month that it has had no
response from Egypt over its calls for cooperation in the case
of the four Egyptian intelligence officers suspected of Regeni's
abduction, torture and murder.
The trial against the four has been suspended after a Rome
court ruled that it could not go ahead because the defendants
had not been notified of its existence.
Italy has been trying to notify the four officers of their
indictments in order to proceed with their trial in absentia but
the efforts ran into a brick wall last year after Cairo refused
to help locate them.
The four Egyptian officials are National Security General Tariq
Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim
and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif
Regeni, a Cambridge University doctoral researcher, was tortured
to death while in Egypt to work on research into Cairo street
hawkers' unions.
A fresh hearing in the case has been set for February 13 in
Rome.
Zaki, who spent 18 months in police custody, is also se to face
a fresh hearing soon.
The hour-long Sisi-Meloni talks also focused on energy
provisions, rebewable sources, the climate crisis and
immigration, the premier's office said.
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