Migration, the case of slain researcher Giulio Regeni and that of Coptic rights activist Patrick Zaki were on the agenda at talks in Cairo Tuesday between Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani and Egypt's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
"I brought up the issue of illegal immigration with president al-Sisi. Greater stability, the fight against the food crisis and climate change mean fewer migrant departures," Tajani tweeted after the talks.
"He (Sisi) gave me further reassurances over the cases of Regeni and Zaki," the tweet added.
Tajani and Italy's premier Giorgia Meloni have both said Sisi has now shown willingness to cooperate with Italy in solving Regeni's 2016 murder in Egypt. An Italian court has charged four Egyptian security officers with Regeni's torture and killing but they have yet to stand trial.
Zaki was released from custody in Egypt in December 2021 after nearly two years in prison but has been on trial there for eighteen months for 'spreading false news'.
At the time of his arrest in 2020, Zaki was a masters student in Women and Gender Studies at the University of Bologna and had earlier written an article describing the hardships of life in Egypt as a minority Coptic Christian.
