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EGYPT-ITALY-POLICE-CRIME
Egypt refuses to accuse police over Italian student’s murder
CAIRO, Dec 3, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Egypt refuses to accuse police officers
suspected by Italy of involvement in the grisly murder of an Italian student
because of a lack of evidence, the authorities said.
Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old doctoral researcher at Britain’s Cambridge
University, disappeared in Cairo in January 2016.
His body was found by a roadside bearing extensive marks of torture in a
case that strained the traditionally close relations between Cairo and Rome,
which accused Egypt of insufficient cooperation in the probe.
According to Italian media, Italian prosecutors could open a formal
investigation into several Egyptian secret service agents.
Egypt has always denied suggestions that its security services were
involved in the death of Regeni, who was researching trade unions in Egypt.
“Charges should be based on evidence and not suspicions,” Egypt’s State
Information Service said in a statement released late on Sunday.
Egyptian and Italian public prosecutors met in Cairo on Wednesday to
discuss the investigations into Regeni’s case, it said, quoting a judicial
source.
The Italian prosecutors asked their Egyptian counterparts “to approve the
inclusion of a number of Egyptian policemen on its register of suspects in
Italy”, it added.
The policemen are suspected by Italian prosecutors of gathering
information about Regeni, according to the source.
Frustrated at the slow pace of the probe, Italy withdrew its ambassador to
Egypt in April 2016, but sent a new envoy to Cairo the following year.
Egyptian authorities initially suggested Regeni died in a traffic
accident, but later said he was killed by a criminal gang that was
subsequently wiped out in a shootout with police.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1503 hrs