Regeni's body 'showed signs of electrocution': Egyptian forensic source

The 28-year-old graduate student had seven broken ribs, traumatic injuries all over his body, and a brain hemorrhage, the source told Reuters.

His body also bore signs of cuts from a sharp instrument suspected to be a razor, abrasions, and bruises. He was likely assaulted using a stick as well as being punched and kicked, the source added.

On Saturday, the forensics authority handed the public prosecutor’s office its final autopsy report on Giulio Regeni, who had disappeared in downtown Cairo on the fifth anniversary of the 25 January revolution, when security forces were deployed across the city to ensure that no protests were held to commemorate the day.

An Italian autopsy on the body, found over a week later in a ditch on the side of a desert road, revealed that the student had suffered "inhuman, animal-like" violence.

The Egyptian prosecutor general's office said it would not publicly disclose the contents of the report as the investigation was ongoing.

Meanwhile, Egypt's general prosecution obtained mobile tracking records showing Regeni's last phone call to his friend on 25 January at 7:20pm local time was from a location close to his house in Giza's Dokki district in Cairo.

But the current whereabouts of Regeni's phone remain unknown.

Regeni, a Cambridge University PhD candidate, had been researching independent trade unions in Egypt and had written articles critical of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government – prompting speculation that he was killed at the hands of Egypt's security forces.

Egypt's interior and foreign ministers have both denied allegations of security forces being behind Regeni's murder.

Ironically, the Egyptian police officer who has been appointed to lead the investigation into the case has previously been convicted of torturing a man to death, according to human rights reports.

Major General Khaled Shalaby was sentenced to one year in prison in 2003 for complicity in the abduction, torture, and murder of an Egyptian man identified as Shawqy Abdel Aal.

Shalaby, who was also charged with forging official documents, was given a suspended sentence along with two other police officers.

The Egyptian police officer who has been appointed to lead the investigation into the case has previously been convicted of torturing a man to death.

Rights groups have not doubted the responsibility of the police for Regeni's murder, citing mass arrests and forced disappearances of Egyptian youths.

Italy has sent investigators to work with Egyptian authorities in an effort to establish what happened to Regeni.

Surveillance cameras from stores that Regeni walked past on the night he vanished may provide footage with vital information on the case, the shopkeepers who own the cameras told The New York Times.

However, the Egyptian police have yet to request the footage, which may indicate negligence or a possible cover-up.

According to The New York Times, three security officials said Regeni had indeed been taken into custody, supporting Italian suspicions of an official hand in his death.

More than 3,000 people attended Regeni's private funeral in his hometown of Fiumicello on Friday, while Prime Minister Matteo Renzi warned Egypt its friendship was on the line over the probe into the student's unexplained death in Cairo.