Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi affirmed Wednesday that the authorities were determined to conclude an investigation into the murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni in Cairo two years ago.
Sisi pledged to bring his killers to justice through full coordination between the competent authorities in both Egypt and Italy.
He made his pledge during a meeting with the Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, in the presence of Egypt's Interior Minister Mahmoud Tawfiq, the head of General Intelligence, Abbas Kamel, and Italian Ambassador to Cairo Giampaolo Cantini.
Egypt and Italy are collaborating to uncover those involved in the torture and murder of Regini, 28, who was doing postgraduate research into Egyptian labor movements, and was found killed in February 2016.
The student disappeared on January 25 of that year, the fifth anniversary of the 2011 revolution. His body bore signs of torture when he was found 10 days later.
Sisi “stressed the strong will and desire to reach final results in the investigation ... and the detection of the perpetrators to achieve justice," the English-language statement said.
Egypt was keen to "cooperate through the concerned bodies and judicial authorities with the Italian counterpart in this regard," it added.
Sisi's spokesman Ambassador Bassam Radi said in a statement following the meeting that the talks also focused on ways of enhancing bilateral relations between Egypt and Italy at various levels in several fields, as well as consolidating joint efforts and cooperation in combating terrorism.
The statement added that the meeting tackled a number of international and regional issues of common concern, especially the latest developments in Libya and illegal migration across the Mediterranean.
Egyptian officials have repeatedly denied involvement in Regeni's murder. Egypt also agreed last year to allow experts from Italy and a German specialist company to retrieve CCTV recordings from Cairo metro stations as part of the investigation.
