Italy’s foreign minister has warned he is ready to take “proportional” action if Egypt does not speed up the pace of its investigation into the murder of Giulio Regeni, an Italian student whose violent death in Cairo has strained diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Paolo Gentiloni said he would not accept “distorted or convenient truths” when Egyptian investigators travel to Rome this week.



“If there is not a change in gear, the government is ready to respond by adopting immediate and proportional measures,” Gentiloni told the senate and parliament on Tuesday. “For (our) national interest we will not allow Italy’s dignity to be trampled on.”

The minister’s comments reflect the worsening relations between Rome and Cairo, two months after Regeni’s tortured body was found in a ditch in the Egyptian capital. The Italian student had been researching labour unions when he disappeared on 25 January, the fifth anniversary of the uprising which led to the ousting of leader Hosni Mubarak.

Gentiloni said a dossier sent by Egyptian authorities in March failed to include key information requested by Italy, including Regeni’s telephone records and CCTV footage from the Cairo metro. The minister said he also wanted to learn who in Egypt may have put Regeni under surveillance and called for Italian authorities to have a more active role in the investigation.

“We are on the eve of important meetings which could be decisive for the development of the investigations,” said Gentiloni.

Italian officials told the Guardian they had been requesting CCTV footage since the beginning, but that their desire for evidence was so strong they were now willing to accept footage simply pertaining to the evening of the 25th January, even if Regeni himself is not shown.

At present, they do not know whether the Egyptian team will provide even this information later this week.

A spokesman for the Egyptian foreign ministry criticised Gentiloni’s comments, saying they “complicated the situation”.

A delegation from Egypt is expected to arrive in Rome on Wednesday for meetings on Thursday and Friday, led by deputy general prosecutor Mostafa Suleiman.

The outcome of the meetings is expected to determine whether full collaboration on the case will be resumed, or if Italy will decide to take measures against Egypt.



Cairo announced a breakthrough in the case last month, with the foreign ministry stating gang members they believed to be behind the murder had been killed in a shootout. Regeni’s belongings were said to have been found in the home of one of the gang, who allegedly impersonated police officers in order to rob foreigners.



But the claim has been met with scepticism in Italy, with both Gentiloni and the prime minister, Matteo Renzi, calling for the truth to come out.

The same Italian officials said on Tuesday they had prepared responses along the lines of the “immediate and proportional measures” outlined by Gentiloni, but that these depended on the evidence brought to Rome. They said they were now determined to obtain details as to how Regeni’s identification documents ended up in at the house of the gang the Egyptians blamed for the incident.



The officials said they believed an incident such as this was unlikely to have taken place without the knowledge of those ranked above low or even mid-level security officials.

There have been claims that the brutal torture to which Regeni was subjected – leaving his mother to identify him by the tip of his nose – bears the hallmarks of the Egyptian security services.



