Italy demands student’s killers be brought to justice in Egypt

Italy has demanded Egypt catch and punish those responsible for the death of student Giulio Regeni, whose tortured, half-naked corpse was found in a roadside ditch in Cairo last week.

Mr Regeni, a 28-year-old graduate student at Britain’s Cambridge University, had been researching independent trade unions in Egypt and had written articles critical of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government.

The incident has strained ties between Rome and Cairo, which has made no arrests so far.

“We want the real perpetrators to be discovered and punished according to the law,” Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told La Repubblica newspaper.

He said Italy “will not be satisfied with suppositions” to explain the death.

Cambridge University said it had written to the Egyptian authorities to demand a full investigation into Giulio’s death.

An initial autopsy in Egypt showed Regeni had been hit on the back of the head with a sharp instrument, beaten and burnt with cigarettes, said an official at the Cairo public prosecutor’s office and a forensic doctor.

Both spoke on condition of anonymity.

A second autopsy in Italy “confronted us with something inhuman, something animal”, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told Sky News 24 television.

“It was like a punch in the stomach and we haven’t quite got our breath back yet”.

Italian media said the second autopsy ascertained Mr Regeni’s neck had been broken. This has not been officially confirmed.

Italian opposition parties have demanded that Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s government take a tougher stand with Egypt.