Red Sea Court renewed on Saturday the custody of the Italian citizen accused of beating to death an Egyptian engineer, for 15 days under investigation, according to Samir Sabry, the lawyer of the victim.
Sabry told Daily News Egypt that the Italian translator of the Italian embassy in Egypt attended the session, and the lawyer of the suspect demanded freeing him under the guarantee of the Italian embassy, but the judge refused the demand.
The Italian tourist was arrested two weeks ago and accused of beating to death Egyptian engineer Tarek Al-Henawy in Marsa Alam in the Red Sea governorate, after Al-Henawy prevented him from swimming in an under-construction resort.
According to Sabry, the suspect denied the intention of murdering the victim, saying that he [the victim] was shouting at him [the suspect], who couldn’t understand what Al-Henawy saying, and he was afraid, so he beat the victim with no intention of killing him.
However, the forensic results pointed out that the victim died because of the beating by the suspect, the lawyer of the victim added.
Sabry told Daily News Egypt that it is impossible for the suspect to be handed over to his country’s authorities in accordance with article No. 1 of the law, which was issued by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in November 2014 and gives the president of the state the right to hand over foreign defendants to their countries in accordance with the high benefit of the state, after being interrogated by the prosecution, and after the agreement of the cabinet.
He explained that the mentioned article does not apply in this case, because the suspect is facing accusations of murder.
Sister of the victim Eman Al-Henawy demanded that Minister of Tourism Yahia Rashid to help in transferring the body of her brother to the family’s graveyard in Mansoura to be close to the family so they can visit him.
Last week, Red Sea General Prosecutor Sherif Tawfik allowed honorary Italian Consul in Hurghada Alberto Barattini and the lawyer of the Italian embassy to visit the Italian suspect in prison at Al-Qoseir police station, local media reported.
The prosecution allowed them only to read the investigation and refused to let them take a copy of it. He also briefed the Italian consul on the updates of the case, according to local media.
