Italy warned Egypt on Wednesday to be prepared for consequences if the fails to cooperate adequately in finding the murderers of Italian student Giulio Regeni.
Italian news agency ANSA quoted Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni as telling the Corriere della Sera newspaper that Egypt should do more to investigate Regeni’s murder or Italy would "take the next steps".
Regeni, a Cambridge PhD candidate and labor rights researcher, was found dead by a Cairo highway in early February, with his body showing signs of torture. Italy and several observers have suggested that Egyptian security services might be behind his murder, an accusation which Egypt’s Interior Ministry persistently denies.
"Faced with a lack of cooperation, we'll evaluate the possible measures, but we hope that relations between Italy and Egypt can make way for the improvements necessary. If that's not the case, I repeat, we will be very ready to consider the consequences," Gentiloni told the Italian daily.
"The endless stream of improbable leads multiplies the family's pain and offends the entire country," he said, referring to recent announcements by Egypt that a criminal ring liquidated by police could be linked to his death, a suggestion that Rome declined to buy.
“We will only stop when we have found the truth, the real one and not a convenient one," ANSA quoted Prime Minister Matteo Renzi as saying on Wednesday.
"The pain of the Regeni family is that of the whole of Italy. We are supporting the family with our hearts, minds and concrete actions, and we have said so in all the public, institutional and private places".
