Two people were arrested in Cairo
Friday in the murder of Italian university researcher and
part-time journalist Giulio Regeni.
A Cairo security source told ANSA the murder was not linked
"to political or terrorist" elements and was purely "a criminal
act".
Regeni's body is set to return from Egypt to Italy Saturday
for a fresh autopsy on his tortured corpse.
Seven Italian investigators have flown to Cairo to take
part in a joint probe aimed at reconstructing a case that has
appalled Italy and sent shock waves abroad.
Regeni's remains will reach Rome's Fiumicino Airport on
Saturday at 13:00 local time, sources said Friday.
His body will be taken to the coroner's department at La
Sapienza University for an autopsy ordered by Rome prosecutors
as part of their murder investigation into the Cambridge
doctoral student's death in Cairo.
Regeni, 28, was studying at the American University in
Cairo and freelancing for Rome daily Il Manifesto on issues such
as the trade union movement.
He wrote several articles under a pseudonym about labour
issues in Egypt for the left-wing Italian newspaper.
After his death, the paper ran his last piece under
his name, detailing difficulties facing independent labor
unions, including the Center for Trade Unions and Workers
Services.
He went missing January 25, the closely controlled fifth
anniversary of the uprising against former strongman Hosni
Mubarak, and he was found dead in a ditch with signs of torture
on the evening of February 3.
Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told RAI public
broadcaster Friday he is confident Egyptian President Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi won't back out of working with Italy to find
Regeni's killers.
"We have one single objective: the truth," Alfano said. "I
am convinced Al-Sisi won't shirk...and that our good relations
with Egypt will be a lubricant aiding in the search for truth."
Alfano added that "all procedures will be activated so that
severe justice will be meted out to those responsible".
Also Friday, Italian intelligence sources denied press
reports of links between the intelligence services and Regeni.
"All and any link by Giulio Regeni with Italian
intelligence is to be categorically denied," they said.
The sources said "indescribable falsehoods and
exploitation" of the affair were to be "refuted with
determination".
The sources expressed "amazement and consternation" at the
reports.
Egyptian Ambassador to Italy Amr Helmy said Friday it was
"important not to give certain 'enemies' the opportunity to
exploit (Regeni's) death" and thus "undermine...the stable and
excellent relations between our countries".
He reaffirmed that investigations would be "carried out
with the maximum transparency and collaboration, as the death of
the student represents an event that has struck Italian
institutions and public opinion".
The European Union is at Italy's side in trying to get to
the bottom of the murder, High Representative for Foreign
Affairs Federica Mogherini said Friday.
"The EU is at Italy's side to try to make sure that the
utmost collaboration is guaranteed by Egyptian authorities and
the utmost clarity is achieved on the responsibility and
dynamics" of the murder, she said.
A team of seven State, Carabinieri and Interpol police
officers left for Cairo Friday to closely follow the
investigation into the death of Regeni, who was found in a ditch
on the outskirts of Cairo with signs of torture on his body.
Egyptian authorities turned his body over to Umberto I
Italian Hospital in the Egyptian capital late yesterday.
It had emerged earlier in the day that Regeni freelanced
with Italian leftwing daily il manifesto.
He covered Egyptian trade unions and used a pen name
"because he feared for his safety", the Rome paper told ANSA.
Also on Thursday, one of Regeni's Egyptian friends told
Egyptian paper Al Ahram that the post-doctoral student was
seeking contacts with labuor activists so he could interview
them.
"Security officers summoned me after Regeni disappeared (on
January 25)," said the friend, who spoke on condition of
anonymity. "They wanted to know about the purpose of his visit
and of his studies".
Regeni was a Cambridge University doctoral student and a
visiting scholar at the American University in Cairo (AUC).
His body showed signs of cigarette burns, stab wounds,
torture, and of having suffered a "slow death", the Associated
Press quoted Egyptian prosecutors as saying.
Egyptian prosecution sources said Regeni had contusions
around the eyes "as though he had been punched (as well as)
signs of torture and wounds all over the body".
The Egyptian interior ministry revealed last week that of
191 disappearances listed by the country's National Council for
Human Rights (NCHR), 99 occurred in custody.
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