• Regeni, Giulio's documents and personal effects delivered to Italian investigators
  • Regeni, Fico: Egypt has punched Italy
  • Regeni, Di Stefano: "Ambassador's withdrawal is not the solution"

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July 16, 2020 "Any criticism" from the Regeni family "is legitimate and understandable and must be a push" for the government: "As a statesman I say that we are doing our best". This was stated by Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio at the hearing before the committee of inquiry into the Regeni case in the Chamber. Di Maio underlined the "very strong commitment of the executives to which I belonged, with a continuous and insistent action" on which "there must be no drops in tension".

"It is right to demand the truth also in civil society and this is another instrument of pressure on the Egyptian, Italian and European authorities, which in my opinion must feel much more involved," added Di Maio. "When I arrived at the Farnesina - he said - it was a year that the prosecutors had no more contacts. Immediately after the meeting with the family I ensured the commitment to want to resume contacts between the prosecutors. Also because it was essential to allow steps forward. With enormous difficulty and with the pandemic in the middle, we have made the contacts between the prosecutors resume and we believe that the action of the diplomatic corps is producing this process that was not born out of thin air ".

Open wound for the whole country
"Political authority and diplomacy continue to strive to reach the truth, truth that we owe to the memory of Giulio Regeni, to the family and to all of Italy. The Regeni affair is an open wound for the whole country "said Di Maio. "We are doing our best as a government," he stressed.

Ambassador needed to stay in Cairo, our diplomatic tool of pressure
"We believe it is necessary to constantly involve the Cairo authorities at the highest level" on the case and in this sense "it is misleading to believe that having our own ambassador in Cairo means not pursuing the truth and vice versa is misleading to think that withdrawing it is necessary to get to the truth, "said Di Maio. "The whole government - he added - understands the pain of the Regeni family" but the presence of the ambassador "is also part of the" executive's strategy "for those who, like Patrick Zaky, are still there," he added. "One of the tools of pressure" to advance the case on the death of Giulio Regeni "is to continue in the action that the diplomatic corps in Egypt continues, which is always correlated with intelligence and the other state apparatuses present". 

In the next few days phone call with Shoukry
"A phone call is planned in the next few days with the Egyptian colleague, Sameh Shoukry", announced the Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio. "Probably" the head of Cairo's diplomacy "will reply in the phone call to the letter" sent on June 17, asking for the truth on the Giulio Regeni case, "continued the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Prerequisite truth essential for relations with Egypt
"Relations with Egypt are strongly affected by the tragic and unresolved Regeni affair, the quality and intensity of relations with Cairo are not comparable to the past, they remain clearly below the potential. The visits institutional and bilateral summits, once constant and assiduous, are severely limited; economic cooperation with what was previously among our very first partners in the region is equally weakened as evidenced by the continuing freezing of the activities of the bilateral Business Council, suspended since 2017 ". This was underlined by the Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, in a hearing before the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the death of Giulio Regeni.

Bringing two public prosecutors to meet is the next goal
"The goal is to bring the two public prosecutors (Rome and Cairo, ed) together live, this is our next goal. A meeting that must advance the investigation. There is a path that we pursue as a government, we must not leave our investigators alone, "said Di Maio.

I hope arms export law will be reformed 
"I hope the arms export law", which is a "variable geometry" law, "will be reformed", Di Maio, answering a question about the sale of frigates in Egypt Fremm, for which the government "has given permission to negotiate" at the moment.