The parents of killed PhD student Giulio Regeni have threatened to make public photos of Regeni’s dead body, which allegedly is marked with signs of torture.
“If we don’t learn the truth on 5 April, we look forward to a strong response from our government. We want an answer about Giulio. We hope we won’t have to show that image,” La Repubblica quoted Giulio’s mother Paola as saying.
Regeni’s parents spoke Tuesday with members of the Italian Senate, and claimed that her son was targeted ny Egypt’s security bodies. “I recognised Giulio [in the photos] by the tip of his nose. What happened is not an isolated case. We trust in a strong response from the government,” Italy’s Corriere Della Sera reported Paola as saying.
This comes as Italy threatens to recall its ambassador to Egypt ahead of a scheduled meeting between the Egyptian police with Italian prosecutors in Rome on 5 April to follow up on the latest updates of the case of Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni.
If nothing concrete comes out of Egyptian investigators’ visit to the Italian capital, Italy will have to recall its ambassador, Italy’s La Repubblica reported Tuesday.
The Egyptian Interior Ministry’s spokesperson and Public Relations officer Abu Bakr Abdul Kereem told local media last week that investigations were still ongoing and that the case is “not yet over”.
The ministry announced on March 24 that it had found Regeni’s personal belongings during a raid on the home of the sister of a killed gang member, who was among five gang members in total who were killed by police during the gang’s alleged attack on security forces.
The ministry had suggested that Regeni could have been kidnapped by a criminal gang specialised in “impersonating police officers” and targeting foreigners in Egypt.
Following numerous international reports condemning the “explanation” put forth by the ministry, Italian investigators told ANSA that there is no definitive evidence confirming the gang was responsible, arguing that the alleged kidnappers are unlikely to have tortured Regeni to death.
Regeni, who had just turned 28, was a PhD student at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and had come to Cairo as a visiting scholar at the American University in Cairo (AUC). He was reported missing on the fifth anniversary of the 25 January Revolution.
He was last known to be travelling to downtown Cairo via the Behouth metro station. His found body showed physical signs of torture, such as cigarette burns and signs of electrocution on the genitals.
