Italian prosecutors investigate death of Egyptian girl in Nottingham

ROME, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Prosecutors gathered in the Italian capital on Monday to start a probe launched into the death of an 18-year-old Egyptian girl in Britain, local media reported.

The girl, Mariam Moustafa, was born and grew up in Ostia, at the outskirts of Rome, before moving to Britain with her family to continue her studies some four years ago.

She died in Nottingham on March 14, after suffering an assault by a group of girls in Nottingham on Feb. 20. Partial footage of the aggression emerged on the internet, and was divulged by Italian media.

Rome prosecutors announced on Sunday the opening of their probe on suspicion of murder, and would ask their British counterparts to acquire all of the case files, state-run RAI News TV channel said.

They would particularly focus on whether the assault was racially motivated, and a possible negligent conduct from the hospital in Nottingham where the girl was first treated the evening of the attack, and dismissed in a few hours.

Later in the same day, Moustafa needed to be hospitalized again, and died after lying some three weeks in a coma due to an alleged brain hemorrhage, according to Ansa news agency.

Italy's Foreign Ministry expressed in a statement its hope that "perpetrators of this atrocious crime would be soon brought to justice." It specified the Italian Ambassador to London Raffaele Trombetta was asked to personally follow the case in cooperation with his Egyptian counterpart.

The Ministry added Trombetta held talks with his Egyptian colleague on Sunday "to renew our (Italy's) complete willingness to support any action the Egyptian Embassy might want to take."

On Monday, a sit-in was called in the seaside neighborhood of the Italian capital where the girl grew up. In a show of support of her family, former classmates, friends, and representatives of the Egyptian community gathered before the elementary school in Ostia attended by Moustafa as a child.

Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi also sent a solidarity message on Twitter, saying the girl's death due to the brutal aggression was "absurd and unacceptable." Enditem