Four linked to ‘gang murder’ of student Giulio Regeni are detained in Egypt

Four people were ordered to be detained on Saturday over the murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni. Two of them are the wife and a sister of a gang leader whom police have linked to the killing of the 28-year-old, whose mutilated body was found a week after he disappeared in Cairo in January. They were arrested in the sister’s apartment, where police discovered a bag with Mr Regeni’s passport and wallet. The others are the brother-in-law and brother of the alleged gang leader, who was killed along with three other alleged criminals in a shoot-out with police.

Elements thus far communicated by the Egyptian prosecutors are not satisfactory to shed light on the death of Giulio Regeni or to identify those responsible for the murder

Rome’s chief prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone

The four suspects are accused of concealing a crime and being in the possession of stolen material, prosecutors said, adding they were taken into custody for four days. Italy has cast doubt on the suggestion that the gang members – who allegedly posed as police to extort foreigners and Egyptians – were behind the student’s murder. "Italy insists: we want the truth,“ wrote Italian foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni on his Twitter account, while prosecutors in Rome rejected the latest conclusions of the Egyptian investigators. Diplomats have suggested the Cambridge University postgraduate student was tortured before he was killed.

According to Egypt, a gang just happened, after two months, to still have Giulio’s bag and IDs safely preserved and easily retrievable during a shoot-out

Paz Zarate, a friend of Mr Regeni, casts doubt on the Egyptian investigation

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