The home and office of Giulio
Regeni's Cambridge supervisor Dr Maha Abdelrahman were searched
Wednesday in a probe into the Italian researcher's torture and
murder in Egypt early in 2016.
Rome prosecutors seized a PC, pen drive, hard disk and
cellphone.
Dr Abdelrahman told police Regeni had freely chosen his PhD
subject, sources said later.
"It was his free choice", she reportedly said.
The search was authorised after the lecturer was questioned
by prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco and special police units in
collaboration with UK authorities.
"The IT material and the documents obtained will be useful to
clear up, once and for all, the role of the professor in the
matters being probed," prosecutors said.
The lecturer remains a person with information on the case,
and is not under investigation, they said.
A statement from Rome prosecutors said that "thanks to the
full and active collaboration with UK authorities,
Cambridgeshire and Italian investigators proceeded to carry out
the investigative activities requested by Italian judicial
authorities in last October's European investigation warrant".
They said that Dr Abdelrahman "agreed to answer all questions
put by British investigators, confirming statements already
rendered".
Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano announced last month that Dr
Abdelrahman would be questioned.
"The British judge has accepted the European investigation
warrant and that the Cambridge professor can be questioned," he
said after meeting British counterpart Boris Johnson.
Alfano called it a "significant development, a significant
step forward".
The Cambridge police are identifying and questioning students
who went to Egypt to do research or study before Regeni, the
Rome prosecutor's office said.
The office confirmed that British authorities were providing
the utmost collaboration with the probe.
Abdelrahman reportedly failed to meet a summons to appear
before Italian prosecutors in June.
The encounter at a Cambridge police station was first set for
9.00 on June 7, then postponed to 16:00 on the same day, and
then to June 8, but the professor did not turn up, well-informed
sources said on November 3.
After the report, a Cambridge University spokesperson told
ANSA that Abdelrahman "has repeatedly expressed her willingness
to fully cooperate with the Italian prosecutors".
Rome prosecutors sent a new formal petition to the British
authorities in October to be able to question Abdelrahman, La
Repubblica said.
The Rome-based daily reported that the prosecutors also want
to acquire the professor's mobile and fixed-line phone records
from between January 2015 and February 28 2016 to reconstruct
her network of relations.
The move regards alleged ambiguity and omissions by the woman
in relation to the probe into the torture and murder of the
28-year-old Italian post-graduate student in Cairo, La
Repubblica wrote in an article entitled 'The Lies of Cambridge'.
Rome prosecutors reportedly want clarification on several
aspects of the case, the newspaper said.
These regard how the subject of Regeni's research on street
trader unions was chosen, the selection of his tutor in Egypt,
the research method used, who decided what questions to ask the
traders and whether Regeni gave the results of his research to
Professor Abdelrahman during a meeting in Cairo on January 7,
2016.
Rome prosecutors have also asked the British judicial
authorities to identify all of the Cambridge University students
working under Abdelrahman who were sent to Cairo between 2012
and 2015, sources said on Thursday.
The petition requests that those students be questioned in
the presence of Italian investigators.
The investigators want to know whether there were other cases
like Regeni's in which students were asked to research the
independent unions in Egypt.
Regeni was asked to look into this by his tutor even though
his PhD regarded the general subject of the North African
nation's economic development.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said last month that
Egypt would give Italian prosecutors CCTV footage from the metro
the day Regeni disappeared.
"As soon as the European company we have tasked with
recovering the images shot by the Cairo underground cameras has
done so, our commitment will be to provide them to Italian
investigators," he said.
Shoukry added, however, that a final decision was down to the
"prosecutor who is independent and will decide on the merits of
the case".
In November Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi said he
wants to "find those guilty" for the death of Friuli-born
Regeni.
Sisi said he believes the murder was an attempt to frustrate
Italian investment in Egypt.
"We are working in a very transparent way with the Italian
authorities," he said.
Sisi said Italian-Egyptian relations are among the best,
despite the fact that they were hit hard by the Regeni case.
Egypt has previously given several explanations for Regeni's
death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff turned ugly
and murder by an alleged kidnapping gang, later wiped out by
police - all of them rejected by Italy.
The probe is reportedly now focusing on a number of Egyptian
policemen.
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