South Giza Prosection has discounted the testimony of an alleged witness who said murdered Italian student Giulio Regeni was involved in an argument near the Italian Embassy in Cairo shortly before his death.
A man named Mohamed Fawzy told investigators that he saw Regeni quarreling with a man behind the embassy headquarters in downtown Cairo on January 24, the day before he went missing.
However, according to the prosecutors, information from communications companies indicated that Fawzy had not left his house in 6th October City on January 24 and so could not have seen the incident.
Following news of the alleged quarrel, media reports suggested that Egyptian investigators planned to view the CCTV footage from the area in order to identify the person with whom Regeni was arguing.
But Al-Ahram online reported on Tuesday that a senior Interior Ministry official said that he had "no information" about video footage showing the alleged incident.
Regeni, an Italian doctoral student who was conducting research on trade unions in Egypt, disappeared on January 25 in downtown Cairo. He was found dead on February 3 with marks of torture on his body, leading many to suspect that he had been abducted and tortured by Egyptian security services.
The Egyptian government has denied that security services were involved, saying that the student might have been killed for various motives, including revenge or crimal activity.
Egyptian and Italian investigators are co-operating on an investigation into the murder.
