Italy will ask "international institutions" to recognise its jurisdiction in a trial of four Egyptian security agents over research student Giulio Regeni's 2016 abduction and murder, foreign minister Luigi Di Maio stated on Wednesday.
"Besides that of all European Union states, Italy will also ask for all international institutions' involvement, to obtain recognition of Italian magistrates' intended trial of four Egyptian officials charged with Regeni's killing," Di Maio said in a livestreamed Facebook post.
Rome prosecutors issued charges last week against four Egyptian security agents in Regeni's kidnapping and torturing to death in January-February 2016. The suspects are expected to be tried in absentia.
Egypt and Italy do not have an extradition treaty and any move to extradite suspects is likely to require their detention in Egypt.
The Rome prosecutors said they dropped charges against a fifth suspect due to a lack of evidence and were seeking information on 13 additional individuals amid ongoing stonewalling from Egyptian authorities.
The Regeni case severely strained relations between Italy and Egypt, leading to the year-long withdrawal of Italy's ambassador in 2016 and the severing of ties between the two countries' parliaments in 2017.
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