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8 Italian detectives arrive in Egypt over probe into researcher's death

Xinhua, May 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

A team of eight Italian investigators arrived here Saturday to follow up the probe into the ambiguous death of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni who was killed earlier in the Egyptian capital, state-run Al-Ahram news website reported.

Regeni's half-naked, tortured body was found in early February on a distant roadside in Cairo nine days after his disappearance on January 25, which marked the Egyptian national Police Day and an uprising anniversary marked amid heavily intensified security.

Italian official ANSA news agency said Friday that the Italian officials probing into Regeni's death will hold a meeting with Egyptian investigators over the developments of the case Sunday and will return to Rome Monday, noting their trip to Cairo was at the invitation of the Egyptian public prosecutor.

The Sunday meeting will be the first between Italian and Egyptian investigators over the case since a similar meeting in Rome failed in mid-April and ended up with Italy's recall of its ambassador to Cairo for consultations due to dissatisfaction with the Egyptian 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.

The case of the 28-year-old Italian PhD student cast shadow on the relations between Egypt and Italy that have always enjoyed good bilateral relations and been strong economic partners.

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 recurrently said that conspirators attempt to ruin and isolate Egypt by raising accusations against its police, judiciary and other institutions.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said last week it would urge the Italian authorities for a report on the death of an Egyptian citizen, whose body was found late April on a railway line in the Italian city of Napoli "with initial bruises on the head and the jaw." Endit