President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has said that the murder of Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni in Cairo was an “individual” incident that cannot affect the “historic relationships between the country and Italy.
Speaking to Italian newspaper La Republica from the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Sisi said Regeni’s death was as “shocking” for Egyptians as it was for Italians, but stressed that it remained a single case of one Italian out of millions who have been visiting Egypt for years. He said that Regeni’s death, along with the case of Egyptian national Adel Moawwad who went missing in Italy five months ago, should not disturb bilateral ties.
Sisi’s remarks come a few days after the European Parliament issued a condemning report on the death of Regeni, whose body was found with brutal torture marks by the side of the Cairo-Alexandria highway. The report said that the case cannot be separated from other human rights violations in Egypt.
Egypt’s Interior Ministry has categorically rebuffed accusations that it interrogated and then killed Regeni, who was a researcher with wide connections in Egyptian labor rights circles.
In his statement, Sisi raised questions over the timing of the corpse's discovery in early February. Coinciding with the visit of an Italian business delegation to Cairo, the president suggested the murder was intentionally plotted by “certain parties” so as to hinder cooperation between the two countries. “Why did it happen at the point when economic and political relations between us have reached an unprecedented high? It is also necessary for us to consider who might have an interest in cutting or blocking the broad collaboration between Italy and Egypt,” Sisi stated.
"I would like to assure the Italian people that our efforts will continue day and night until we have found out the truth about what happened and have arrested the culprits, taken them to court and punished them according to the law,” said the president. He announced that a team of investigators assigned to the Regeni case will head to Rome in the days to come as part of efforts to boost collaboration on the case.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
