The Italian government considers "
unacceptable
" the decision of the Egyptian prosecution announced Wednesday, December 30 to release five National Security police officers implicated in the murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni in 2016 in Cairo.
Read also: Italy: justice targets five Egyptian officers for the murder of a student
The Italian Foreign Ministry "will
continue to act at all levels, including the European Union, so that the truth about the barbaric murder of Giulio Regeni can finally emerge
", he announced in a statement received on Thursday 31st. December.
Italy "
wants the Egyptian public prosecutor's office to share this demand for truth and provide all the necessary collaboration for the Rome prosecutor's office
" in its investigation, he added.
Egyptian Attorney General Hamada Al-Sawy said in a statement that there was "
no reason to pursue an action
(before a criminal court)
for the murder of Giulio Regeni, because the perpetrator is unknown
".
"
The statements of the Egyptian public prosecutor's office are unacceptable
», Denounced the Italian ministry.
In January 2016, Italian student Giulio Regeni, then 28, was kidnapped by strangers and his body was found tortured and excruciatingly mutilated a few days later in the suburbs of Cairo.
He was investigating Egyptian unions, a very sensitive subject in the country.
His murderers have never been found.
Italian investigators identified in 2018 five suspects, members of the intelligence services, a thesis strongly rejected by Cairo.
Constantly trampling, the affair has long poisoned relations between Cairo and Rome, with Italy regularly accusing the Egyptian authorities of not cooperating, or even of leading Italian investigators towards false leads.
Nevertheless, in June, Egypt bought two Italian frigates for 1.2 billion euros, a sign of a new vitality in relations between the two capitals.