Italian prosecutors have named several members of Egypt’s national security agency as suspects in the alleged murder of Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni – the first Egyptians to be named by the Italian side in connection with the case after almost three years.
The move comes after a meeting, the 10th of its kind, between Rome’s deputy public prosecutor Sergio Colaiocco and Egyptian authorities in Cairo.
The prosecution in Rome decided to proceed on its own, listing several members of Egypt’s national security agency as potentially responsible for the alleged torture and murder of the student, Italian prosecutors told the Guardian.
Reports in multiple Italian news outlets detail how the Italian prosecutors were frustrated by a lack of progress in the investigation following Colaiocco’s visit to Cairo. On his return to Italy, they added the names of Egyptian security officials to the preliminary list of suspects.
Regeni disappeared on 25 January 2016, and his body was found bearing signs of torture on an outlying Cairo desert road on 4 February that year, generating suspicions that Egyptian officials were involved in his disappearance and his death.
Earlier this year, the Rome prosecutor, Giuseppe Pignatone, stated that he believed Regeni was killed because of his research, which focused on trade unions in Egypt. His death provoked a significant break in Italian-Egyptian relations, with Italy recalling its ambassador to Cairo between April 2016 and September last year.
The Egyptian authorities initially provided a variety of explanations for Regeni’s death, including claims that he was killed as part of an antiquities smuggling ring, or due to his sexual activities.
Five men alleged to be members of a gang that the Egyptians initially claimed murdered Regeni were gunned down by Egyptian security forces on the outskirts of Cairo in March 2016, and were later exculpated by the public prosecutor.
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