Italy yesterday recalled its ambassador to Egypt for consultations in protest over the lack of progress in a probe into the fate of murdered Cambridge student Giulio Regeni.
The move came after two days of talks between Egyptian and Italian investigators in Rome ended without a resolution of tensions between the two countries over the fate of 28-year-old Regeni, whose tortured and mutilated body was discovered outside Cairo on February 3.
“Italy has undertaken a commitment with the Regeni family... that we would stop only once we get the truth,” Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said.
Egypt’s foreign ministry released a statement saying it had “not been officially notified” about the recall, adding that it “awaits the return of the investigative team to hear its evaluation of the meetings”.
It would then assess the situation and “there will be the necessary communications at the appropriate level”, foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid was quoted as saying.
A statement by the Rome prosecutor in charge of the case said that the Egyptians had handed over phone records of two of Regeni’s Italian friends who were in Cairo at the time of his disappearance, as well as photos taken on the day his body was discovered.
The statement made no mention of CCTV footage of the neighbourhood from which Regeni disappeared on January 25, which the Italians had asked to see, or whether Regeni was under surveillance prior to his abduction.
The Egyptian team indicated that they were still considering the possibility Regeni was abducted by an anti-foreigner criminal gang whose members all died in a police shootout last month.
The Italian prosecutor stressed his “conviction that there are no elements to directly link the gang to the torture and death of Giulio Regeni”, the statement said.
Egypt’s presentation of a theory that a criminal gang carried out the murder has been greeted with outraged scepticism in Italy and has helped fuel public anger over the case, putting intense pressure on Renzi to be seen to be getting tough with Cairo.
Italian officials suspect the student was killed by rogue elements in the Egyptian security services. Their Egyptian counterparts have so far maintained there is no basis for such claims.
With the case threatening to derail relations between two countries with major economic and strategic ties, the Egyptian team of two prosecutors and three senior police figures had flown to Rome in a bid to reassure their Italian counterparts that everything was being down to bring Regeni’s killers to justice.
Italy had warned last week of diplomatic retaliation if the perceived foot-dragging of the Egyptians continued.