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".
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