An anonymous prosecution official told Reuters Tuesday that the late Italian student Giulio Regeni was interrogated before his death.
The official’s statements were allegedly based on head of forensic authority in Egypt Hisham Abdel Hamid’s testimony during the prosecution investigations.
“Abdel Hamid said during questioning that the wounds on the body were inflicted at various intervals over a period of 10-14 hours. That means that whoever is accused of killing him was interrogating him for information,” the prosecution official told Reuters.
Daily News Egypt tried to reach Abdel Hamid but he was unavailable for comment.
In response, deputy justice minister for forensic affairs told state-run newspaper Ahram that none of the aforementioned statements are true. He also denied that Abdel Hamid was requested for questioning or gave any details regarding the autopsy to the prosecution so far.
Regeni, 28, was found in a ditch along the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road on 3 February, nine days after his disappearance.
Egyptian Minister of Interior Magdi Abdel Ghaffar denied the involvement of Egyptian security forces in Regeni’s death in a press conference Monday. The minister also refuted all speculation published in media outlets criticising the Egyptian police and he confirmed that “Egypt is treating Regeni’s case as if it were an Egyptian”.
The Italian government further announced it would not accept unclear information from Egyptian authorities in the investigation. “We won’t settle for purported truths, as we have said on the occasion of the two arrests initially linked to the death of Giulio Regeni,” foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni said in an interview published Monday in La Repubblica newspaper. Paolo stressed that Italy will take whatever measures necessary to reach justice.
