European Commission Spokesperson Dana Spinant said the EU has asked and continues to ask for full cooperation from the Egyptian authorities with the Italian authorities in investigating the circumstances of Giulio Regeni's death.
"We want to support the Italian authorities in this situation," Spinant said, reporting the EU's position on the case of Giulio Regeni, the young Italian researcher killed in Cairo at the start of 2016.
On Thursday morning, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, which is what led to questions about Regeni from the press.
Spinant said it was a short, generic meeting as part of preparation for the EU-AU Summit, and covered economic relations and opportunities, stability in the region, human rights, energy and climate.
"The issue of rights is systematically addressed in exchanges with our partners, but I cannot say specifically what was said; I do not think there was an opportunity to go into the details of this tragic case," Spinant said.
Italy is seeking to notify four Egyptian intelligence officers that they are accused of torturing to death the 28-year-old Cambridge doctoral researcher into Cairo street seller trade unions, so they can be tried for his murder in absentia in Italy.
Friuli-born Regeni, whose research topic was a politically sensitive issue and who had been fingered as a spy by a union leader, was tortured so badly his mother only recognised his body from the tip of his nose.
National Security General Tariq Sabir and his subordinates, Colonels Athar Kamel Mohamed Ibrahim and Uhsam Helmi, and Major Magdi Ibrahim Abdelal Sharif, were on trial at the third Court of Assizes in Rome when a judge ruled the trial could not proceed because they had not been served notice of it.
Rome prosecutors say that Regeni was tortured for days, resulting in "acute physical suffering" by being subjected to
kicks, punches, beaten with sticks and bats and cut with sharp objects, and also being burned with red-hot objects and slammed into walls.
His neck was then snapped in a fatal blow.
At various times Egypt has advanced differing explanations for Regeni's death including a car accident, a gay lovers' tiff and abduction and murder by an alleged kidnapping gang that was wiped out after Regeni's documents were planted in their lair.
Lack of cooperation on the case by Egypt led to Rome's temporarily withdrawing its ambassador from Cairo for a spell.
The Regenis have appealed to the EU for help in finding the truth about their son's slaying and have condemned continued Italian arms sales to Egypt including two frigates.
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