Giulio Regeni's family 'betrayed' by Italy government over $1.2bn arms sale to Egypt

The family of Italian student Giulio Regeni, who was murdered in Cairo in 2016, have condemned an arms deal between Italy and Egypt worth an estimated $1.2bn.

The body of Regeni, who had been tortured, was found by the side of a major road on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital.

His murder remains unsolved, but Rome prosecutors said last year that he was ensnared in a "spider's web" spun by the Egyptian security services in the weeks leading up to his death.

Italy says sale of warships to Egypt is undergoing 'political assessment'

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Egyptian officials have repeatedly denied any involvement in the killing of Regeni, a 28-year-old postgraduate student at Cambridge University, who had been researching Egypt's independent unions for his doctoral thesis.

Italian news media reported on Friday that Rome had given a green light to the sale of two warships to Egypt, despite tense relations between the two countries over the unresolved murder.

"This government has betrayed us," Regeni's parents, Paola and Claudio, were quoted as telling Italian newspaper La Repubblica. 

"The limit has been reached, we will no longer allow the government to make fun of us." 

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte sought to defend the government's decision to sell the warships, built by Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri.  

"I have always put Giulio Regeni at the centre of my requests and it will always be so," Conte was quoted as saying by La Repubblica. 

Sources within the government cited by the paper justified the decision as a "commercial operation that has nothing to do with the search for the truth about the death of Giulio Regeni". 

'A betrayal for all Italians'

The sale of the two frigates is part of a much larger potential Egyptian-Italian weapons deal estimated to be worth around €10bn, comprising four more frigates, 24 Eurofighter Typhoon jets, 24 M-346 trainer aircraft and a military satellite. 

If completed, it would be the largest arms deal in Egypt’s recent history and one of the largest sales by Italy since World War Two.

The AGI news agency said Conte spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on 7 June, partly about "bilateral, industrial and judicial cooperation, especially on the Regeni case".

Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio told parliament on Wednesday that the government continues to "demand the truth [about Regeni] from the Egyptian authorities through real, effective and efficient cooperation".

However, in an interview aired on Friday on the Italian television show Propaganda Live, Paola Deffendi, Regeni’s mother, said: “We were betrayed by friendly fire, not by Egypt. 

"One cannot expect to struggle against one’s state for justice. This is a betrayal for all Italians who believe in the inviolability of rights.”

'Shame of the century'

It was unclear how Egypt would pay for the warships, let alone the larger potential deal. According to the media in Italy, €500m will reportedly come via an export financing loan from Italian investment bank Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.

Last month, Egypt accepted a $2.8bn emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund, intended to help its economy overcome the challenges posed by coronavirus. 

It was the latest of several large loans intended to support the economy in Egypt, where despite large parts of the population being affected by increasing austerity measures, Sisi has poured billions of dollars into mega-projects.

Regarding the arms deal, Riccardo Noury, a spokesman for Amnesty International in Italy, told the UK's Guardian newspaper that what was described as the deal of century was for him “the shame of the century”.

“And this would be only the starter of a deal that could reach nine billion euros,” he said. “We demand that this sale be voted on by parliament. If not, we reserve the right to take legal action.”

The deal awaits a final procedural step, a signoff from the foreign ministry office that authorises the sale and export of arms, La Repubblica said.