Diplomatic meetings in Cairo and Washington this week are likely to further focus international attention on the death of an Italian graduate student whose badly beaten body was found in Cairo last week.
A visit by Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry to Washington and a trip to Cairo by US Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights Sarah Sewall come amid mounting pressure by Italy for Egypt to find the killers of Giulio Regeni, 28, a doctoral candidate at Cambridge University who was doing research in Cairo.
Italian Minister of the Interior Angelino Alfano, citing an autopsy carried out after the body arrived in Italy on Saturday, said Regeni had suffered “inhuman, animal-like, unacceptable violence” before his death.
A person close to Regeni’s family said the autopsy showed that he had died from a fracture of his cervical vertebra, most likely caused by a violent blow to the neck.
The Egyptian government has allowed Italian investigators to participate in the investigation into the killing, and officials have repeatedly emphasized their intention to cooperate with Italy.
Italian officials have issued demands for “the truth” about what happened to Regeni, and while they have avoided making public accusations against Egypt, some have privately blamed the Egyptian security forces for his death.
The meetings between Egyptian and US officials are likely to include discussion of Regeni’s case, seen by some in Egypt and abroad as another alarming sign of abuse by the security forces in a country where arbitrary detention and torture have become increasingly common, according to human rights monitors.
In Washington, Shoukry is scheduled to meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and various congressional leaders, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
US officials have criticized Egypt’s human rights record under Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, most recently during a visit to Cairo by Kerry in Augus last year.
Italy, too, has strong ties with Egypt: Italy was the first Western country to welcome al-Sisi after the ouster in 2013 of democratically elected Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, and the two countries are coordinating over the discovery last summer of a gas field off the Egyptian coast. Even so, the stark details of Regeni’s death have plunged that relationship into crisis.
On Sunday, Italian Ambassador to Egypt Maurizio Massari said Regeni’s body had “clear, unequivocal marks of violence, beating and torture.”
Massari, who was the first Italian to see Regeni’s body, said in a television interview that Egyptian officials were initially of little help when Regeni went missing on Jan. 25 after leaving his apartment to see a friend.
However, on Wednesday, hours after Italian officials appealed to al-Sisi in person, Regeni’s body was found.
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