Italian news agency: Egypt team in Rome presents lengthy case file on Regeni’s murder

An Egyptian delegation of investigators and security officials presented Italian officials with a 2,000-page report on their investigation into the torture and murder of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, the Italian Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) reported on Thursday.

ANSA named five Egyptian officials in the delegation, including prosecutors Mostafa Suleiman and Mohamed Hamdy al-Sayed, Major General Magdy Abdel Ghaffar from the National Security Agency, and two high-ranking Interior Ministry generals, Mostafa Meabed and Alaa Abdel Meguid.

The lengthy case file includes interviews with 200 witnesses with alleged connections to Regeni, according to ANSA. The news agency quoted Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi as saying the Egyptian government “owes Regeni’s family the truth.”

A case file was previously sent to Italian authorities from Egyptian investigators, but much of the information requested by Italy was reportedly missing, Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said, including Regeni’s phone records and footage from the Cairo metro, where Regeni allegedly disappeared on January 25. Italian authorities are expecting to receive this information from the Egyptian delegation on Thursday.

"We think reaching the real truth is a duty for our country, and that this is also in the interests of the Egyptian government," Renzi said on Wednesday.

The Cambridge doctoral candidate was found dead in a ditch in a Cairo suburb in early February after he was missing for 10 days. Regeni was reportedly heading from his home in Dokki to the heavily policed downtown area on the fifth anniversary of the January 25 revolution. His body displayed severe bruising and signs of torture, according to autopsy results. 

There have been a number of accounts as to how Regeni died. Egyptian authorities alleged the involvement of a criminal gang specializing in impersonating police officials and robbing foreigners, but couldn’t question the gang members to this effect, as they killed all five of them in a security ambush. Italian authorities and Regeni’s family dismissed these claims. Italian investigators said at the time that Regeni’s case is “far from being closed.”

Italian judicial sources refuted an unverified account of Regeni's death published by Rome-based news agency La Repubblica on Wednesday that was based on an email from an "anonymous security source" alleging the involvement of Egypt's presidency and intelligence agencies in the torture and murder of the Italian researcher.