Contentious ‘joint investigation’ into Regeni murder ends with mutual Egyptian-Italian understanding to part ways

Egypt will “temporarily close” its investigation into the 2016 murder of Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni, the Public Prosecution announced on Monday night in what it presented as a joint statement issued by Egyptian and Italian prosecutors.

The joint statement lacked a clear narrative or final resolution to the high profile case, which saw at least five security officials implicated in the brutal torture and murder of Regeni. Instead, it presented divergent paths for the contentious nearly five-year-long joint investigation that has seen Italian prosecutors repeatedly accuse Egyptian officials of deliberately trying to mislead.

“While the Egyptian prosecution appreciates the Italian legal proceedings, it expresses its full reservations about these suspicions and does not support them, since it views them not to be based on solid evidence,” the statement read, adding that the Egyptian prosecution “understands the independent decisions” Rome prosecutors are planning to take.

The Egyptian Public Prosecution affirmed that “the perpetrator of the murder of the Italian student is still unknown, and that it will temporarily close its investigation, while instructing investigative authorities to continue taking all necessary measures to find the perpetrator of the crime.”

At the same time, however, the prosecution said that it has firm evidence supported by eyewitness accounts that members of a gang had stolen Regeni’s belongings, which were found in the apartment of one of the gang members. It alleged that the gang had committed other similar crimes, some of which targeted foreigners including an Italian national other than Regeni, and that they had used forged documents to impersonate Egyptian security officials.

In March 2016, Egypt’s Interior Ministry announced that police forces in New Cairo had tracked and killed five members of a criminal gang “specializing in the theft of foreigners,” which the ministry claimed was responsible for Regeni’s murder.

The ministry later issued a detailed statement linking these five men to Regeni’s murder and posted a photo of items in their possession, said to belong to Regeni. This account was dismissed at the time by Regeni’s family, Italian investigators and even by Egyptian prosecutors, who denied that there was a link between the gang and Regeni’s death.

Italian investigators highlighted a number of inconsistencies in Egypt’s explanation of what happened to Regeni, querying how likely it is that kidnappers would torture a victim and then hold onto his ID documents for months after his death. They also lamented the deaths of the suspects, who were shot dead by police forces and cannot be questioned in relation to Regeni’s murder.

While Egypt is closing its case file, Monday’s statement asserted that the Italian prosecution intends to conclude its own investigation into the murder with five suspects, all of whom belong to the Egyptian security apparatus. However, the statement also noted that the five suspects acted in their individual capacity and “are not connected to any Egyptian governmental bodies or entities,” and that the Italian prosecution will present its case before a judge in Rome. The Italian prosecutors first placed five members of Egypt’s security forces under official investigation last year for their alleged involvement in Regeni’s disappearance.

Under Italian law, the prosecution is obliged to notify defendants of their indictment. Within twenty days of being notified of the start of the trial, the defendants may submit a defense memorandum, the results of their own investigations, or request that the public prosecutor conduct specific investigations. The deadline for the prosecution to notify the defendants in the Regeni investigation is December 4. Despite having requested the addresses of the five suspects in order to notify them officially, Rome prosecutors have been unable to secure information regarding the legal residencies from Egyptian authorities.

Despite the divergent paths presented in the statement, there is a mutual understanding between Rome and Cairo that “Italy is doing what they want to do and Cairo is doing what we want to do,” according to an Egyptian government source who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity. The source added that the two countries will remain friendly but that this marks the end of any official Egyptian involvement in the Regeni case and that Cairo will neither continue to investigate further nor provide any additional information.

While Italy has expressed its intention to continue moving forward with the case, there will be no institutional accountability for Egypt’s intelligence services, which Rome prosecutors have previously said spun a web to ensnare Regeni “from the October preceding his death, a web in which the apparatus used the people closest to Giulio in Cairo.”

Instead, Italy will move toward a trial in absentia for the five Egyptian security officials on charges that will not implicate any Egyptian security agency in having instructed the suspects to commit the crime, an Italian government source told Mada Masr.

Regeni, a PhD candidate at Cambridge University who was researching independent trade unions in Egypt, disappeared from a metro station on January 25, 2016 — the fifth anniversary of the 2011 revolution — while on his way to meet a friend in downtown Cairo. His body was found on February 3 on the side of a highway on the outskirts of the city, bearing marks of severe torture.

Despite initial pressure from the Italian government that saw it recall its ambassador to Egypt in the months following his death, Italy’s relationship with Egypt gave way to a bevy of economic deals and arms purchases. Earlier this year, an Egyptian official speculated that Italy may use the political pressure it faces over Regeni’s case as further leverage to secure even more deals with Egypt.

An informed Egyptian source who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity said on Monday that Italy will never be able to give up the economic deals offered by Egypt, particularly upcoming arms deals currently under discussion. “We are talking about huge financial gains for the Italian economy,” the source said.

On Monday, Regeni’s parents, Paola and Claudio, and their lawyer Alessandra Ballerini issued a joint statement blasting the Egyptian prosecution’s questioning of the Rome investigation.

“In these five years we are overcome with indignation by the countless injustices on the part of the Egyptian authorities. They kidnapped, tortured and murdered a son. They sullied his reputation and discredited him. They lied and cheated not only us, his parents, but all Italians,” they said. “Today, Egyptian prosecutors have the gall to express ‘reservations’ toward our magistrates and investigators, and to consider the evidence presented thus far as ‘insufficient’. This is the ultimate lack of respect toward our magistrature and our collective intelligence. Prosecutors in both countries have never been so divided. We believe that our government must acknowledge this outrage and recall our ambassador.”