Egypt 'mulling Regeni response' - prosecutors

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 1 - Rome prosecutors said Wednesday that Egypt's chief prosecutor was mulling a response to their requests to quiz five intelligence service officers over the 2016 torture and murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni.
    Rome prosecutors had a videoconference on the case on Wednesday.
    Last month Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote to his Egyptian counterpart reiterating Italy's demand for the truth about Regeni's death.
    Cambridge doctoral researcher Regeni, 28, was found dead on February 3 2016 a week after disappearing on the Cairo metro.
    He had been tortured so badly that his mother said she only recognised him by the tip of his nose.
    Rome prosecutors placed five members of Egypt's security apparatus under investigation for the murder, sparking Cairo to stop significant cooperation in the probe into the Friuli-born researcher's death.
    At various times Egypt has advanced various explanations for his death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff and abduction and murder by an alleged kidnapping gang that was wiped out after Regeni's documents were planted in their lair.
    Regeni was researching Cairo street sellers unions for the British university, a politically sensitive subject. The head of the street hawkers union had fingered Regeni as a spy.
    Rome recently drew condemnation from Regeni's parents by announcing the sale of two frigates to Egypt.
    Premier Giuseppe Conte subsequently said that while the deal had been technically approved, it had yet to get final political approval.
    Di Maio also said the deal was on hold. (ANSA).