(supersedes previous)The Italian
government is closely monitoring the torture and murder case of
Italian student Giulio Regeni in Egypt and is determined to make
sure the investigation sheds full and unequivocal light onto the
circumstances of his death, sources at Premier Matteo Renzi's
office said Friday.
Also on Friday, Italian investigators in Cairo said the
case is far from closed after last night's statement from the
Egyptian interior ministry that it has recovered Regeni's
passport and evidence that he was kidnapped by an Egyptian
criminal gang of five, all of whose members were killed in a
police shootout on Thursday.
"There is no definitive element confirming they were
responsible," the Italian investigators said, adding Egypt has
yet to pass on crucial investigation data to Italy.
They also pointed to inconsistencies in Egypt's latest
version of what happened to Regeni. First, kidnappers would be
unlikely to hold on to compromising evidence such as a victim's
passport for months after the victim's death. Second, kidnappers
would be unlikely to torture a victim over the course of a week
- as Regeni was - if their only purpose was to obtain a ransom.
Third, it is not credible that an entire gang of alleged
kidnappers was killed by police, thereby preventing any
possibility of getting corroborating statements from any of
them.
The Cambridge doctoral researcher's severely burned and
mutilated body was found in a ditch on the road to Alexandria on
February 3, nine days after he disappeared on January 25, the
heavily policed fifth anniversary of the uprising that ousted
former strongman Hosni Mubarak.
"We must continue digging and following our leads to find
definitive evidence and eliminate doubt," Italian investigative
sources said.
The Egyptian interior ministry said in last night's
statement that Regeni's passport was found in the home of the
sister of one of the deceased alleged gang members, named as
Tarek Saad Abdel Fatah, 34.
The alleged criminal gang posed up as cops to kidnap
foreigners, the ministry said. Police searched the home of the
sister of the suspected ringleader because "investigations
uncovered evidence he went to see her from time to time", the
ministry said. She lives in the Nile Delta north of Cairo, it
said.
"Security forces have finished their investigation and
apprised the Italian side of the results," the ministry said.
"We thank the Italian side for its full cooperation...(which)
contributed to this result," Egyptian news agency MENA cited the
ministry as saying on Thursday.
The sister and the wife of the alleged kidnap gang leader
said Regeni was killed while resisting a robbery, Egyptian
national prosecution sources told ANSA on Friday. The two women
named as sister Rasha Saad Abdel Fatah and wife Mabrouka Ahmed
Afifi "confirmed the suspect committed the act in order to rob
(Regeni), not kill him," the sources said. "The victim resisted,
which prompted the accused and his fellows to attack him,
causing his death".
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