Italy’s Cairo ambassador still in Rome since April - Italian FM

Thursday 16-06-2016 05:47 PM

Italian student Giulio Regeni - Facebook Photo

CAIRO, June 10 (Aswat Masriya) - Italy’s newly appointed ambassador to Egypt will remain in Rome for the moment due to tension between the two countries over case of slain Italian student Giulio Regeni, Italian foreign minister said on Thursday.

Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said during a visit to Bosnia that “it's a very serious initiative that I don't think has a precedent. For the moment we are sticking with this decision”, reported Italian news agency ANSA.

Italy recalled last April its ambassador then, Maurizio Massari, to Cairo after Egyptian investigators  failed to meet Italy’s expectations in providing evidence needed to uncover the mystery of Regeni’s death. 

The Italian foreign ministry said then in a statement “as a result urgent decisions are needed on the most proper actions to bolster efforts aimed at finding the truth about the barbaric murder of Giulio Regeni”

The young Italian researcher, Regeni, went missing in Cairo on Jan. 25, 2016, which marked the fifth anniversary of the popular uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.

Ten days later, Regeni's body was found, bearing signs of torture, in a roadside ditch on the outskirts of Cairo.

A number of media reports accused Egyptian security forces of torturing the Italian student to death, which the Egyptian interior ministry has denied.

Last May, Italy named Giampaolo Cantini as the new ambassador to Egypt to replace Massari.

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