Italy recalls envoy to Egypt over inquiry into student

Cairo: Tensions between Italy and Egypt over the torture and death of an Italian graduate student in Cairo this year touched a new high on Friday, when Italy announced that it was withdrawing its ambassador to Egypt for urgent consultations to protest what it called a lack of cooperation in the joint investigation between the two nations.

Italy’s foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, announced the move at the end of two days of talks in Rome between Egyptian and Italian investigators over the death of Giulio Regeni, 28, whose brutalised body was discovered beside a highway on the edge of Cairo on Febrary 3. In particular, Italian officials wanted cellphone data and surveillance footage that could help determine the precise circumstances of Regeni’s disappearance on January 25.

But that assistance did not materialise in recent days, Italian officials said.

In a statement, Gentiloni said he was recalling Ambassador Maurizio Massari for an “urgent evaluation” of efforts to resolve what he termed a “barbaric murder”. The gesture falls short of a full withdrawal of the ambassador and will not entail closing Italy’s embassy in Cairo.

In Cairo, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ahmad Abu Zaid, said the government had not been formally informed of the Italian decision and would await the return of the Egyptian investigators from Rome before taking further steps.

Regeni’s killing has dominated the media in Italy for weeks, and public anger there has been driven by accounts of the injuries he suffered before his death. His body was found with cigarette burns, broken bones and signs that he had been beaten on the feet.

Sharp questions arose over Egyptian attempts to link Regeni’s death to five men who the police said were members of a criminal gang that had been kidnapping foreigners. The men were shot dead at a police checkpoint on March 24.

An emotional media appearance last month by Paola Regeni, the student’s mother, increased pressure on the Italian government to take a tough stance. She threatened to publish a photograph of her son’s battered body unless the Egyptian investigation made substantial progress.

Italy wants other European countries to pressure Egypt on the Regeni investigation. But a united European front on the case may be complicated by competing economic and strategic interests. The president of France, Francois Hollande, is scheduled to arrive in Cairo on April 18 for a four-day visit during which the two countries are expected to sign a $1.1 billion (Dh4.04 billion) weapons deal.