Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio has written to his Egyptian counterpart urging "tangible signs of progress" in researcher Giulio Regeni's unsolved 2016 murder. "The time for waiting is over," Di Maio wrote Thursday on social media.
"I have sent a letter to Egypt's foreign minister Sameh Shoukry, underlining that we need tangible signs of progress in the case of Giulio Regeni. We need to shed light on Giulio's death because the time for waiting is over," wrote Di Maio.
"Concrete progress" could follow an "important" meeting scheduled for 1 July between Italian and Egyptian prosecutors probing Regeni's abduction and torturing to death, Di Maio wrote.
"I understand the pain of the family which has every right to demand answers and is unacceptable that these have so far not been forthcoming," Di Maio stated.
The murky circumstances surrounding Regeni's barbaric killing are a "festering wound" for Italy "that needs to be healed as soon as possible," he said.
"I will do all I can to speed up this process. The government is working flat out to uncover the truth surrounding Giulio Regeni's death."
It is believed that the 28-year-old PhD student was abducted in late January 2016 and tortured to death days later by the Egyptian secret services over his contacts with trade unions and anti-government organisations.
Egypt's government strenuously denies involvement in the killing of Regeni, whose half-naked, battered corpse was found along a highway linking Cairo to the northern port city of Alexandria in early February 2016.
The Regeni case caused a diplomatic rift between Italy and Egypt.
.jpg)
