President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi expressed in a statement the "deep regret" of Egypt on both the official and popular levels over the killing of Italian PhD student Guilio Regeni in Cairo.
In a presidential statement, Sisi stressed Egypt's intention to continue cooperating with the Italian side in complete transparency to find out the circumstances surrounding the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice.
He expressed his confidence that the incident will be addressed judiciously and that longstanding warm relations between Italy and Egypt will not be affected by exceptional incidents such as this.
In response to the inquiries of a delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on Tuesday, Sisi underlined Egypt's full intention to discover the whereabouts of the Egyptian citizen Adel Mouawad, who disappeared in Italy in October 2015.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid has said Egypt abstains from commenting on the statement of Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Geniloni on Tuesday.
In the strongly-worded statement directed at Egypt, Geniloni vowed that instant action would be taken against Cairo if it did not disclose the truth behind the killing of the Italian student.
"We will not allow the dignity of our country to be trampled, we will not accept distorted facts, and the government is ready to take action," Gentiloni said to the Italian Senate Tuesday.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry take the stance that Geniloni's heated statements further complicate the situation.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Zeid pointed out that the Gentiloni's statement came one day before a scheduled meeting between Egyptian investigators and authorities in Italy to share the latest results of investigations.
A security and judicial delegation will fly to Rome on Wednesday, headed by Judge Mostafa Suleiman, Assistant Attorney General and a number of police officers assigned to the investigation of Regeni's murder.
According to a statement issued by the top prosecutor's office, the delegation's visit comes within the framework of positive cooperation between the Egyptian and Italian top prosecutor generals — the result of an agreement between the two officials during the top Italian prosecutor's visit to Cairo following the murder.
The Egyptian delegation will present the latest results of their investigations, including details of Regeni's complex ties in Egypt and the background and killing of the gang found in the possession of his personal belongings. The delegation will detail other crimes committed by the gang, including the robbery of an Italian national called David a few months ago, according to security and judicial sources.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
