(ANSA) - Rome, January 24 - Giulio Regeni's family said
Tuesday, the eve of the anniversary of his disappearance in
Cairo, that "we saw and we are seeing all the evil of the world"
in the death by torture of their son.
"This evil is still revealing itself, slowly," they said in
reaffirming their determination to get at the truth about
Regeni's abduction, torture and murder.
Speaking a day after the broadcast of a secretly filmed
video of Regeni being pressured by money by the head of the
Egyptian street sellers' union, who reported their son to the
police, the family said "it has been an intense, terrible year,
a voyage into horror which becomes ever deeper as we get into
the details: yes' it's true, we have seen and we are seeing all
the evil of the world.
"This evil," they went on, " is continuing to reveal itself
slowly, like a ball of wool, but this, as well as being the
fruit of constant work by those who are following the
investigation, is also the result of the support of all the
people in Italy and the world who continue to ask 'truth for
Giulio Regeni'.
"A river of affection, a flood that tomorrow we hope will
pour into the streets with torches lit for Giulio and for
justice for those whose human rights are not respected."
"Thank you again," the family concluded, "solidarity is
something tangible, human, it is all the good in the world!"
an Egyptian TV station on Monday showed a
video in which Giulio Regeni, the Italian researcher tortured
and murdered in Cairo a year ago, is shown speaking to the
president of the Egyptian street sellers' trade union, Mohamed
Abdallah.
The video was filmed using a Cairo police micro-camera hidden
in one of Abdallah's shirt buttons, sources said.
They said this confirms for investigators the involvement of
the police in shooting the video, and that Abdallah agreed to
shoot it for them.
In the verbal exchange broadcast by the Sada El Balad TV,
Abdallah asks for money to treat his cancer-hit wife and Regeni
refuses the request but holds out the prospect of funding a
gathering of "information" on the trade union and its "needs".
The video, subsequently posted on Youtube, but broadcast
exclusively by Italian daily website Messagero.it, shows the
face of Regeni, who is heard speaking in good Arabic answering a
man speaking Egyptian who is evidently holding a half-hidden
cellphone.
"First video of Regeni with the president of the trade union
of the street sellers," reads a caption.
The unionist, among other things, says "my wife has cancer
and must have an operation and I have to look for money, it
doesn't matter where."
Regeni replies: "the money isn't mine. I can't use money for
any reason because I'm an academic"
When Abdallah insists, the researcher replies that the money
"comes via Britain and the Egyptian centre that gives it to the
street traders".
"We must try to get ideas and obtain information before the
month of March, Regeni says in the video, which lasts 3 minutes
47 seconds.
When asked "what type of information do you want?", the
researcher replies: "what is the most important thing for you as
regards the trade union and what are the union's needs?
"I want information starting from this issue, the most
important for us, and ideas can be developed," Regeni says.
Regeni, 28, who disappeared on January 25 2016, the heavily
police fifth anniversary of the uprising that toppled former
strongman Hosni Mubarak, was doing doctoral research on trade
unions, a contentious issue in Egypt.
The Cambridge University PhD student, whose mutilated body
was found in a ditch on the road to Alexandria on February 3,
was last seen alive walking into a Cairo metro station.
At the weekend Egyptian prosecutors said Italian and German
experts could view CCTV footage of Regeni at the station.
Abdallah said last December that he reported Regeni to the
interior ministry before he was abducted, because he was
allegedly asking questions about national security.
In August the Reuters news agency said Abdallah was likely a
police informant on Regeni.
Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano told the House last
Wednesday that Italy will only stop when it gets to the truth
about Regeni's death.
"We'll continue to follow the path of firmness and
cooperation, the effort will continue with the same
determination there has been up till now," he said, stressing
that "so far the collaboration between Italian prosecutors and
the Cairo prosecutor's office has produced fruitful results".
Egypt has denied speculation its security forces, who are
frequently accused of brutally repressing opposition, were
involved in Regeni's death.
Egyptian and Italian prosecutors have been working on the
case together and there has been some recent progress in getting
cellphone and other records.
But Italy has yet to send its new ambassador to take up his
post in Cairo.
Italy has dismissed several earlier versions of Regeni's
death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff turned ugly
and kidnap for ransom that went wrong.
Egyptian police wiped out the alleged kidnapping gang and
said they found Regeni's documents in the home of a relative of
the alleged gang leader.
In October President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said Italy was
falsely suspecting Egyptian security forces in the Regeni case
because it is heeding "groundless" Egyptian media reports.
We saw all the world's evil (3)
Thank organisers of rallies on Jan. 25 anniversary of abduction