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Italy offers to help Egypt probe Giulio Regeni murder

Italy's chief prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone on Monday offered Rome's assistance in the Egyptian investigation into the murder of an Italian graduate student after his abduction in Cairo.

Italy offers to help Egypt probe Giulio Regeni murder
People hold placards reading 'Truth about Giulio Regeni ', an Italian student who was found dead in Egypt, bearing signs of torture. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

Giulio Regeni, a Cambridge University PhD student who was researching Egyptian labour movements, disappeared on January 25th and his badly mutilated body was found a week later.

Egypt's attorney general Nabil Sadeq discussed the investigation with Pignatone, who was visiting Cairo along with his deputy Sergio Colaiocco after an invitation.

“The Italian side proposed its assistance to Egyptian investigators and to provide all information in its possession,” said a statement, stressing the determination of both parties to shed light on the case.

Last Thursday, the European Parliament called on Egypt to cooperate in the probe, saying it came within the context of deaths in custody in the North African country.

In February, Egyptian Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar rejected charges of security forces being involved in the murder of Regeni.

The 28-year-old's slaying became a cause celebre among academics around the world and has turned the spotlight on what rights and opposition groups say are increasing abuses by security services under the military-backed government in Cairo.

Police and intelligence services in Egypt are frequently accused of carrying out torture in arbitrary detention or the killing of detainees.

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CRIME

Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

Italy is conducting more investigations into alleged fraud of funds from the EU post-Covid fund and has higher estimated losses than any other country, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) said.

Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

The EPPO reportedly placed Italy under special surveillance measures following findings that 179 out of a total of 206 investigations into alleged fraud of funds through the NextGenerationEU programme were in Italy, news agency Ansa reported.

Overall, Italy also had the highest amount of estimated damage to the EU budget related to active investigations into alleged fraud and financial wrongdoing of all types, the EPPO said in its annual report published on Friday.

The findings were published after a major international police investigation into fraud of EU recovery funds on Thursday, in which police seized 600 million euros’ worth of assets, including luxury villas and supercars, in northern Italy.

The European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, established to help countries bounce back from the economic blow dealt by the Covid pandemic, is worth more than 800 billion euros, financed in large part through common EU borrowing.

READ ALSO: ‘It would be a disaster’: Is Italy at risk of losing EU recovery funds?

Italy has been the largest beneficiary, awarded 194.4 billion euros through a combination of grants and loans – but there have long been warnings from law enforcement that Covid recovery funding would be targeted by organised crime groups.

2023 was reportedly the first year in which EU financial bodies had conducted audits into the use of funds under the NextGenerationEU program, of which the Recovery Fund is part.

The EPPO said that there were a total of 618 active investigations into alleged fraud cases in Italy at the end of 2023, worth 7.38 billion euros, including 5.22 billion euros from VAT fraud alone.

At the end of 2023, the EPPO had a total of 1,927 investigations open, with an overall estimated damage to the EU budget of 19.2 billion euros.

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