Tortured Italian student died 'slow death': Egypt official

The body of an Italian graduate student who
disappeared last month has been found with
multiple stab wounds, cigarette burns and other
signs of torture and a "slow death" on a roadside
on the outskirts of Cairo, an Egyptian prosecutor
said Thursday.
Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University
PhD candidate who had been researching labor
rights in Egypt, went missing on Jan. 25, the fifth
anniversary of the popular uprising that toppled
longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. His body was
found Wednesday.
News of the slaying and evidence of torture
spurred diplomatic tensions. An Italian
government delegation cut short a visit to Cairo
and Italy summoned the Egyptian ambassador in
Rome, calling for a full investigation with
participation by Italian experts.
Regeni's disappearance came at a time when
Egyptian officials and media have often depicted
foreigners as plotting against Egypt — and
particularly as seeking to foment unrest
surrounding the Jan. 25 anniversary. In the days
leading up to the anniversary, police were on high
alert, conducting sweeps aimed at preventing any
possible protest. Pro-democracy activists were
arrested and some foreigners whose visas had
expired were deported.
Egypt is also battling an insurgency by militants
who have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State
group. The militants are mainly active in the Sinai
Peninsula but have also carried out attacks in
Cairo and elsewhere, including kidnapping and
beheading a Croatian oil worker last year and
setting off a bomb outside the Italian consulate in
Cairo.
On Thursday, Egyptian media accused "evil hands"
of orchestrating Regeni's killing to damage
Egyptian-Italian relations. The term is usually
used to refer to Islamists, who have been
targeted by a ferocious crackdown since the 2013
military ouster of Islamist President Mohammed
Morsi. Authorities justify the campaign by
pointing to the fight against the militants, who
have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers
over the past four years.
The Italian media pointed fingers at the Egyptian
security forces.
A business daily, Il Sole 24 Ore, said "the strong
suspicion" was that Regeni was "killed by Egypt
... by the system, by the security apparatus."
Regeni had been in Egypt since September
conducting research on workers and labor rights
— a sensitive topic, since disgruntled workers
were among the forces in the 2011 anti-Mubarak
uprising and authorities still worry about worker
discontent.
The left-wing Italian newspaper il Manifesto said
Regeni had been writing for it about labor issues,
signing his articles under a pseudonym.
"I imagine it was for security because the
articles were about workers and unions,"
said foreign desk editor Simone Pieranni.
"It's clear that when you speak about social
rights and workers' rights in Egypt you are
implicitly denouncing the lack of freedom."
Pieranni said the newspaper would publish a final
piece critical of the lack of press and other
freedoms in Egypt under Regeni's own name on
Friday.
Regeni was last seen on Jan. 25 heading from his
apartment to meet a friend in downtown Cairo.
He entered the subway, which was packed with
security personnel scanning bags and checking
commuter's IDs.
In the days following his disappearance, friends
and colleagues launched a search, circulating
Regeni's picture widely on social media.
His body was found Wednesday in an empty lot
along a highway in the 6th of October suburb on
Cairo's western outskirts. He was identified by
his Egyptian roommate, said prosecutor Ahmed
Nagi, who heads the investigation team in the
case.
"All of his body, including his face" had
bruises, cuts from stabbings and burns
from cigarettes, Nagi said, adding Regeni
appeared to have suffered a "slow death."
Later Thursday, Nagi said an autopsy showed the
cause of death was a brain hemorrhage. Asked
about possible police involvement, he said: "We
don't rule out any possibility."
Earlier, the deputy head of criminal investigations
in Cairo's twin province of Giza, Alaa Azmi, had
cited initial findings he said indicated Regeni was
killed in a car accident.
For years, rights groups have accused Egyptian
police of regularly torturing detainees. Over the
past year, they have also accused them of using
"forced disappearances" — detaining suspected
activists or Islamists in secret without reporting
their arrest.
The Egyptian Association for Rights and
Freedoms documented 314 cases of forced
disappearances in 2015, said lawyer Halem
Henish. Most later turned up in prison, but at
least five were found at the morgue, including one
with signs of torture like burns and electric
shocks.
He said the group has documented 35
disappearances so far in 2016, including at least
two of whom died.
Meanwhile, in Regeni's hometown of Fiumicello in
northeastern Italy, townspeople were "destroyed"
by the news of his death, said Mayor Ennio
Scridel. The town of 5,000 declared Sunday a day
of mourning.
"If you go into a bar, you see dark faces,
silences, looks that let escape all the
sadness of a small community like ours,"
Scridel told Sky Tg24. He described Regeni
as "an extraordinary person, who comes
from a good family."
News of Regeni's death prompted Italy's
economic development minister, Federica Guidi, to
cut short a visit to Cairo and head home. Guidi
had been heading a delegation of 60 business
people to help companies set up business in
Egypt.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi spoke with Egyptian
President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi by telephone and
pledged to coordinate efforts with Italian
authorities to "unravel the mystery" surrounding
Regini's death, el-Sissi's office said.
The Italian news agency ANSA said a seven-
person team of Italian and Interpol investigators
was heading to Cairo on Friday to participate in
the inquiry.
Egyptian authorities have come under criticism
for lack of transparency in several investigations,
particularly the Oct. 31 crash of a Russian
passenger jet over the Sinai Peninsula and the
September killing of eight Mexican tourists and
four Egyptian guides by a security forces
helicopter that opened fire on their desert safari.
In both cases, authorities banned media reports
on the investigations.