Body of Italian student found in Cairo, Rome demands action

An Italian student who disappeared in Cairo last week has been found dead and appears to have been tortured, officials said Thursday, prompting furious demands from Rome for the speedy arrest of his killers.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi phoned Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to demand that Giulio Regeni's body be immediately repatriated and Italian experts be given access to the investigation into his death.

"We have to find those responsible for this horrible crime and bring them to justice," Renzi was quoted as telling Sisi.

Italy also summoned Cairo's ambassador in Rome to express its "bewilderment over the tragic death" of Regeni, 28.

The Cambridge University PhD student's half-naked body was found in a roadside ditch on the outskirts of Cairo early on Wednesday, public prosecutor Hossam Nassar told AFP.

He had gone missing on January 25 while on his way to meet a friend.

"This is a murder," Nassar said.

Ahmed Negi, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation, said the body showed clear signs of violence.

"There are bruises and injuries on the body, especially on the face and back. The body was naked from the waist down," Negi said.

"So far we are considering this to be a criminal act, but we are waiting for the forensic report and the police investigation to be complete."

An initial prosecution report seen by an AFP reporter said that the injuries included apparent cigarette-burn marks near the eyes and on the feet.

'TRUTH MUST COME OUT'

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Italy needed to be involved in the investigation "because we want the truth to come out, every last bit of it".

"We owe that much to a family that has been stricken in an irreparable way and, at the very least, has the right to know the truth."

The foreign ministry said the Egyptian ambassador, Amr Mostafa Kamal Helmy, had given assurances that the Egyptian authorities would do their utmost to find those responsible for what he termed a "criminal act".

In reaction to the news, Italy's Economic Development Minister Federica Guidi, who was in Cairo when Regeni's body was discovered, cancelled the final day of a trade mission involving around 60 Italian companies.

She had hours earlier urged Sisi to intervene personally in the investigation into Regeni's disappearance, underlining the potential for the case to disrupt normally close ties between Rome and Cairo.

Renzi was the first Western leader to receive former army chief Sisi after his 2013 overthrow of Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met Gentiloni in London and the two "agreed to increase cooperation and coordination between the Egyptian and Italian sides to determine the cause of the death," Shoukry's ministry said in a statement.

Regeni, whose studies included Arabic and Arab literature, was from Fiumicello near Udine in northeastern Italy.

He was in Cairo doing research for his doctoral thesis on trade unions in Egypt and was last seen when he left his home with the intention of travelling by metro to meet a friend in the city centre.

Cairo was almost deserted on January 25, as Egyptian authorities had clamped down across the capital on what was the fifth anniversary of the Arab Spring uprising that ended longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak's 30-year reign.

Cambridge mourned the loss of its student. "We're deeply saddened to hear of the death of Giulio Regeni. Our thoughts are with his family and friends," the renowned university said on Twitter.