Italian tourist flights to Egypt suspended

The Italian Tourism Association is suspending flights to and from Egypt until the issue of a full inquiry into the murder of researcher Giulio Regeni in Cairo has been resolved. The association’s members include a number of private Italian tourism companies.

According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics in the North African state, if the flight ban is implemented, Egypt will lose $230 million.

In a press statement released on Saturday, the association insisted that although Egypt is a “wonderful” country, “a holiday is not possible in the context of the current pain and indignation” at the student’s murder.

Regeni, 28, went missing on 25 January. His body was found on 3 February, dumped in a ditch on the side of the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road, with bruises and fractures.

Human rights groups and Western media reports said that the signs of torture on the body of the young man, who was researching trade unions in Egypt, suggest that the Egyptian security forces had killed him. The government in Cairo has denied the accusation.

Egypt’s interior ministry actually announced that it had found Regeni’s belongings, including his passport, in an apartment used by two relatives of one of the alleged killers. It added that all of the gang members were killed in a shootout with police in New Cairo, but Italy has rejected the Egyptian narrative and demanded that the investigation should continue.