In this photo released by the Egyptian Ministry of Interior on Thursday, Mar. 24, 2016, personal belongings of killed Italian graduate student Giulio Regeni, including his passport, are displayed (AP)
Italian investigators said Friday that there “is no definitive element confirming” that a gang Egyptian authorities have claimed were behind the death of Giulio Regeni are responsible for his death, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
On Thursday, Egyptian police said they had found the passport and other identity documents of the slain Italian student inside an apartment in linked to a gang who would rob foreigners. The four gang members were killed hours before the announcement in an exchange of fire with police.
"The case is not at all closed," the Italian investigators added.
Investigators also pointed to “inconsistencies” in the latest information in the case provided by Egypt, to the effect that it would be unlikely that Regeni's kidnappers would hold on to “compromising evidence” months after his death, and that kidnappers were unlikely to torture the victim over the course of a week if their aim was to obtain a ransom.
Finally, the unnamed investigators said that it was “not credible that the entire gang of alleged kidnappers were killed by the police, thereby preventing any possibility of getting corroborating statements from them.”
ANSA also reported that Italian Senate foreign committee chair Pier Ferdinando Casini said Friday that the Egyptian police’s statement left him "very perplexed."
"We are waiting to get more detailed information from Egyptian authorities," Casini said.
Regeni's body was found with signs of torture on it on a roadside on the outskirts of Cairo nine days after he disappeared on 25 January.
The 28-year-old PhD student was conducting research on independent trade union movements in Egypt.
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