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Italy pressures Egypt to review position on Italian student murder

March 28, 2016 at 11:34 am

Italy’s Interior Minister, Angelino Alfano, said Sunday that Egypt will keep the case of Italian research student, Guilio Regeni, open two days after the Egyptian authorities claimed they had identified a criminal gang responsible for Regeni’s torture and death.

“Faced with our steadfast pursuit of the truth, the Egyptian authorities eventually changed course and informed us that their investigations are ongoing,” Alfano said in a Sunday interview with Corriere Della Serra newspaper.

Alfano said it was “very important” for Italian investigators to participate directly in the investigation and interrogations conducted in Cairo.

“I repeat for the Guilio family and our citizens that the Italian government will reach the names of the killers” he added.

Read: Egypt ‘not giving full cooperation’ over student’s death, claims Italian official

Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi warned on Saturday that his country would not accept convenient truths or stop short of finding out the truth about Regeni’s death.

“It will not bring Giulio back to life, but I owe it to the family,” he said. “I owe it to all of us, and to our dignity”.

The Egyptian police claimed on Friday that they had identified people linked to Regeni’s murder, after killing four members of a criminal gang and finding the victim’s passport at one of their apartments.

Italian newspapers and western diplomatic community in Egypt suspects that members of the Egyptian security services had kidnapped and tortured Regeni to death.

Regeni disappeared in central Cairo on 25 January. His body was found nine days later on the side of a motorway, badly mutilated and showing signs of torture.

Read: Italy to hold Egypt responsible for student’s murder