Regeni family meet Rome prosecutors (3)

(ANSA) - Rome, September 6 - The parents of Giulio Regeni, the Italian student tortured and murdered in Egypt last year, on Wednesday met with Rome prosecutors probing their son's death.
    The meeting focused on documents recently sent by Egyptian prosecutors, which did not contain any clinching evidence on who tortured and killed the 28-year-old Cambridge doctoral research student, sources said.
    Earlier Wednesday Lower House Speaker Laura Boldrini received ambassador Giampaolo Cantini, whom the government last month decided to send to Cairo on September 14 to fill a diplomatic vacuum opened after lack of cooperation, citing progress in the Regeni case.
    The Regeni family insists there has not been any real breakthrough such as to warrant Cantini's posting but Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said earlier this week that having relations with "inextricable partner" Egypt was unavoidable.
    Egypt has denied suggestions its security forces, frequently accused of brutal repression of opposition, had anything to do with the death of Regeni, who was researching Cairo street seller unions.
    Briefing parliament on the case this week, Alfano said the case was "a serious injury for our conscience, for all of us and for the whole country".
    He admitted that "the day the body of Giulio Regeni was found, bilateral relations suffered a big blow".
    Alfano also told parliament that the search for the truth about the murder will include "the British institution for which Giulio was conducting his research" - Cambridge University.
    He said Cantini "will have a relationship of cooperation with his British colleague in the Egyptian capital" over the Regeni case when he takes up the role.
    Alfano said the decision to send Cantini to Cairo does not mean Rome has given up its quest to get to the bottom of the affair.
    He added that the government had already explained its position regarding a New York Times report that the US gave "explosive" evidence that Egypt's secret services tortured and murdered Regeni to the former government of Matteo Renzi.
    In its report, the NYT said the administration of former United States president Barack Obama gave the Renzi government proof last year that graduate student Regeni was abducted, tortured and killed by Egypt's security services, who had been surveilling him for some time because of his research into street vendor trade unions.
    The office of Premier Paolo Gentiloni denied the report.
    The Obama administration gave no "explosive evidence" or real actionable information to the Renzi government that Regeni was tortured and murdered by the Egyptian secret services, Gentiloni's office said.
    Regeni, disappeared on January 25, 2016, the heavily policed fifth anniversary of the popular ousting of former strongman Hosni Mubarak.
    His mutilated body was found in a ditch on the road to Alexandria nine days later.
    Egypt gave several explanations for his 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.
    But last month Cairo supplied allegedly key fresh testimony by the police who probed Regeni before and after his death, prompting Rome to send Cantini to Cairo.
    Regeni's family has said it was "indignant" at the posting of the ambassador.