Justice for Regeni, Tajani tells Shoukry

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 1 - Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Thursday he had told Egyptian counterpart Sameh Hassan Shoukry that Cairo must provide justice for Giulio Regeni, an Italian student tortured to death in the Egyptian capital in early 2016.
    Bilateral ties have been strained 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.
    Premier Giorgia Meloni told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi on the sidelines of the CoP27 meeting in Egypt last month that Rome was still focusing closely on the case of Regeni, for whom Rome is trying in absenti National Security General Tariq Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif.
    Like Meloni, Tajani also said Thursday he had told Shoukry of Italy's attention for another case of alleged Egyptian human rights abuses involving Italy, Patrick Zaki, an Egyptian student at Bologna University who has been charged with subversion in Egypt since February 2020.
    After his phone call with Shoukry, Tajani tweeted: "Energy, climate, immigration and food security, these are the points on which to strengthen cooperation with Egypt, a strategic country for the stabilityof north Africa. Justice and truth for Giulio Regeni, attention on the Zaki case". (ANSA).