Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano announced on Monday that an Italian ambassador would return to Cairo more than a year after the envoy was recalled in the wake of the killing of Italian PhD student Giulio Regeni.

In a short statement published on the official website of the Italian foreign ministry, Alfano said that in light of the recent developments in the cooperation between Egyptian and Italian investigatory authorities regarding Regeni’s murder, the Italian government had decided to send Ambassador Giampaolo Cantini to the Egyptian capital.

The Italian foreign minister referred in his statement to a joint statement issued by the Egyptian prosecutor-general and his Italian counterpart on Monday regarding the developments in the murder case.

"The Italian government is still committed to finding the truth in regards to the murder of Giulio Regeni,” he said.

Cantini was appointed as Rome's envoy to Cairo in May 2016, replacing Maurizio Massari, who was recalled by Italian government in April that year after an Egyptian delegation to Rome submitted a 2000-page report to Italian chief prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone on the Egyptian investigation into the killing.

Italian authorities expressed scepticism about the lack of transparency in the investigations, calling for the truth about the case.

Regeni was conducting research on trade unions before he went missing on January 25 last year. His body was found with signs of torture on 3 February on the outskirts of the capital.