Egypt to allow Italian experts to examine CCTV footage in Regeni murder investigation

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s public prosecutor agreed on Sunday to allow experts from Italy and a German company that specialises in salvaging CCTV footage to examine cameras in Cairo as part of the investigation into last year’s murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni.

A statement from the prosecutor said that the experts would examine recordings made by the closed-circuit television camera at the metro station in the Cairo neighbourhood of Dokki, where Regeni lived, to find “the facts of the incident and its perpetrators”.

Regeni, who was working on postgraduate research into Egyptian trade unions, was last seen by friends on Jan. 25 last year. His body, showing signs of extensive torture, was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Cairo on Feb. 3.

Egypt has rejected suggestions from human rights groups that Egyptian security services appeared responsible for the 28-year-old’s death. Italy has constantly complained about the slow progress in the investigation and in April withdrew its ambassador in Cairo in protest.

In the latest of several meetings, Egyptian Public Prosecutor Nabil Sadek met for two days of talks with Italian prosecutors in December and handed over documents requested by Italy in September.

Among documents was the transcript of testimony given by the head of the Cairo street vendors’ union, who had raised concerns with police over Regeni. Egypt has said that police carried out checks on Regeni’s activities after being contacted by the union official but found nothing of interest.

Security and intelligence sources told Reuters in April that Regeni had been arrested outside a Cairo metro station on Jan. 25 and was taken to a Homeland Security compound.

(Writing by Lin Noueihed and Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by David Goodman)