The European Union Parliament issued on Tuesday a motion for resolution on Egypt addressing the country’s human rights conditions and mainly focusing on the case of Italian student Giulio Regeni.
Regeni disappeared on 25 January after having left his home in Cairo; his body was found on 2 February on the side of a road on the outskirts of Cairo.
The motion for this resolution is expected to be discussed on Thursday.
The draft expressed concerns over the overall human rights situation in Egypt, notably the widespread crackdown against civil society organisations, the continued police and military brutality, harassment, mass arrests, systematic torture and abuse in places of detention.
It called on the Egyptian authorities to “carry out a swift, independent, impartial investigation into Regini’s case; and to identify and prosecute those responsible for this odious crime; and to fully investigate and cooperate with the Italian government on this case”.
EU draft resolution called for “the suspension of any form of security cooperation and assistance with Egyptian authorities”, arguing that “security apparatus continues to fuel radicalism and violent extremism through its systematic violations committed in full-impunity”.
The resolution further called for the banning of exports of security equipment and military aid to Egypt from all EU countries.
The draft resolution indicated that Giulio Regini’s case “is not an isolated accident, but it is placed within a context of a dramatic increase in reports of torture in police detention stations nowadays”.
It moreover called on Egypt’s House of Representatives to urgently repeal “the repressive Protest Law of November 2013, and other laws including the Law on Terrorist Acts and the Law on Terrorist Entities, which is used by the regime for internal repression rather than to improve collective security”, according to the official statement published on EU Parliament website.
