• Regeni case, the EU: "We are following closely, we are on the side of the family and of the truth"

  • Corrado Augias returns the Legion of honor: "Gesture in memory of Giulio Regeni"

  • France-Egypt: Egyptian President al-Sisi meets Macron in Paris

  • Regeni case, Rome prosecutor close to closing the investigation.

    Cairo: "Insufficient Evidence"

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December 30, 2020

"The Attorney General announced that for the moment there is no reason to undertake criminal proceedings regarding the killing, kidnapping and torture of the victim Giulio Regeni, as the perpetrator remains unknown": he reiterates this in a statement. the Egyptian Attorney General.

The Italian judiciary on 10 December had closed the investigation against 4 members of the Egyptian services, a step that precedes the opening of a trial.

But the note released by Cairo goes back to underlining that the prosecutor "has instructed the parties entrusted with the investigation to continue the search to identify" the perpetrators.

"The Egyptian Attorney General Hamada Al Sawi" excludes what has been attributed to four National Security officers in this case ", it is also stated in the text published on the Facebook page of the Cairo institution, which avoided providing the '' election of domicile of the suspects as requested by the Public Prosecutor of Rome.

"Given the deaths of the accused, there is no reason to undertake criminal proceedings regarding the theft of the victim's property, which left wound marks on his body," the statement added.

The reference is to the five members of the "criminal gang" specializing in robberies of "foreigners", "including another Italian in addition to the victim", the note recalls.

The group was defeated in a firefight with security forces in Cairo on March 24, 2016. Egyptian authorities claimed that Regeni's documents were found in their lair, including his passport, but the version did not convince Italian investigators.

Already in the joint communiqué of 30 November with the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office, the Egyptian general had advanced "reservations on the evidential framework" which, according to him, consists of "insufficient evidence to support the accusation in court".

On December 17, the EU took a stand on the case, after the Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maio, urged the 27 member countries to "express themselves clearly" on human rights.

"The European Union continues to closely follow the case of Giulio Regeni, we raised the case in our bilateral talks and asked the Egyptian authorities to cooperate fully with the Italian authorities to shed light on the circumstances of the death" said a spokeswoman for the European Commission. , specifying that the Regeni case is "important for the whole EU and not just for Italy" and that Brussels "will continue to follow the case closely and will remain in contact with the Italian authorities. The EU is on the side of the family Regeni for the search for truth ". 

Di Maio's initiative followed the strong gesture of the journalist Corrado Augias, who returned the Legion of Honor to France, after this maximum recognition of the French Republic was awarded by Macron to the Egyptian president Al Sisi.