An Italian student who disappeared on his way to a party in Cairo was found dead, Egyptian authorities said Thursday, a sad development that left Italy’s government demanding answers.
Giulio Regeni, 28, was last seen heading to a birthday party on January 25 — the fifth anniversary of the start of the uprising that ended the 30-year reign of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The Reuters news agency, citing “security officials” whom it did not name, reported that Regeni’s body bore signs of torture.
Regeni went to Cairo to do research on Egyptian trade unions for his doctorate at the University of Cambridge, according to his resume.
After he disappeared, some of his friends launched a social media campaign to try to find him, using the hashtag #whereisgiulio.
Italians want to participate in investigation
“Obviously, we are very upset for what happened, and we asked the Egyptian government to cooperate and to allow the Italian authorities to be involved in the inquiry to understand what happened there,” said Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni. “It’s not acceptable that, if an Italian citizen is a victim — and in such a way is a victim — of a tragedy in Cairo, there is no cooperation.
“So I’m confident that the Egyptian authorities will cooperate with us to understand what happened, to establish the truth of what happened,” Gentiloni said.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi expressed his “sincere condolences” to Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in a phone conversation Thursday afternoon, the Egyptian leader’s office said.
El-Sisi vowed that Egyptian authorities will pay “the utmost attention to investigating the incident … and follow up on all the circumstances surrounding it.”
“The (Egyptian) President stressed that the Italian side will find the necessary cooperation by the Egyptian competent authorities in this regard,” El-Sisi’s office said in its statement.