Top Egyptian and Italian prosecutors, Nabil Sadek and his counterpart Giuseppe Pignatone, held a meeting on Thursday in Cairo to discuss developments in the case investigating the murder of Italian PhD researcher Giulio Regeni in Cairo.
They discussed latest details emerging from the ongoing investigation, particularly progress in regaining CCTV footage recorded at Cairo’s Dokki Metro station which is reported to show Regeni the same night of his death on January 25 2016.
A joint statement issued by both prosecutors revealed Pignatone provided Sadek with a report prepared by Italian police, based on documents mutually exchanged between Egypt and Italy.
On Sunday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with Italy’s Interior Minister Marco Minniti. During the Cairo meeting, Sisi emphasized that there is a real willingness to unearth the concluding results of investigations into the murder and torture of Regeni, through high-level judicial cooperation between Egyptian and Italian prosecutors.
Sisi said that cooperation had so far achieved positive results, and an upcoming meeting will see the two countries’ prosecutors discuss developments.
Regeni, the 28-year-old Italian University of Cambridge PhD student, was conducting field research in Cairo, on independent trade unions in Egypt.
He disappeared January 24 2016 in central Cairo, amid a high presence of police in the area, who were anticipating protests.
His body, bearing signs of torture, was discovered on a desert roadside on February 6 2016.
Initially, Egyptian police officials suggested Regeni died in a road accident.
However, an Italian autopsy showed that Regeni’s body was covered with cuts, and his bones were broken, indicating that he had been hit with “fists, batons and hammers.”
Egyptian authorities have released scant information about their investigations, despite international pressure and outrage from Italians and academics alike.
Egypt has emphatically denied that its police were involved in his abduction, torture, or death.
Further, Egypt has pledged to bring Regeni’s killers to justice, holding regular meetings between Egyptian and Italian investigators in Rome.
Italian officials stated that they have received all the requested evidence, including phone records, but as the two-year anniversary of his murder approaches, the case remains unsolved.
