Egypt denies detention of Italy's Regeni as "false news"

The Egyptian Interior Ministry denied in a statement Thursday circulated news of police detention of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni ahead of his recent murder in Cairo.

The ministry completely rejected "what has been released by a news agency and copied by news websites about detention of Italian student Giulio Regeni by the police or any other state authority and his transfer to a police headquarters."

Regeni's half-naked, tortured body was found in early February on a distant roadside in Cairo, nine days after his disappearance in the Egyptian capital city.

A renowned news agency quoted Egyptian unnamed security sources as saying that the Italian PhD student had been detained by police and then transferred to a compound run by Homeland Security the day he vanished.

The police statement referred to the story as baseless "rumors" and "false news," stressing they may take legal actions against those filing them.

The case of the 28-year-old researcher cast shadow on the relations between Egypt and Italy as Rome eventually recalled its ambassador to Cairo for consultations due to dissatisfaction with the Egyptian probe into the case.

In response, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said the Arab country was "disturbed" by Italy's political address of Regeni's case.

Italy's diplomatic move followed the visit of an Egyptian delegation to Rome to provide the Italian side with the results of investigation, which did not seem to be satisfactory to the Italians who decided to suspend cooperation with the Egyptian side in the probe.

The Egyptian delegation in Rome rejected Italy's demand of getting thousands of relevant phone records and said it was against the Egyptian constitution and laws.

In late March, the Egyptian police said it killed a four-member gang and found a fifth dead body with them in a van they were driving after a shootout in Cairo, adding they found Regeni's handbag with his passport and student card after searching a residence of one of the members' relatives.

The police stressed the dead gang had a record of kidnapping and robbing foreigners, a narrative that did not appeal to the Italian side whose officials and media point fingers at the Egyptian police that face similar claims of abuses at home.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said Sunday that conspirators attempt to ruin and isolate Egypt by raising accusations against its police, judiciary and other institutions.

"Raising these issues is an attempt to isolate Egypt from its European and Arab spheres," said the Egyptian president, adding that European criteria of human rights should not be applied to countries in a turbulent region, including Egypt. Endit