Cairo demands probe into Egyptian prisoner’s death in Italian prison

CAIRO - 6 March 2017: Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry issued directives to the Egyptian Embassy in Rome to follow investigations into the case of an Egyptian citizen who died in an Italian prison, according to a Sunday statement by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid.

According to Italian daily newspaper Giornale di Sicilia, the 30-year-old Egyptian prisoner, Hany Hanafi, committed suicide in his prison cell in Caltanissetta, noting the incident was the 11th of its kind since the beginning of the year.

Shoukry immediately reacted to the news and demanded communication with the Italian authorities to confirm the circumstances of the incident as well as a comprehensive investigation about Hanafi and his case before his demise.

“Prisons are obliged to preserve the health and safety of prisoners,” said Donato Capece, general secretary of Sappe, Italy's biggest union for penitentiary workers. “Therefore, a suicide prevention program should be laid, while precautions and measures have to be taken to prevent these kinds of incidents, not only for the sake of prisoners but for the entire institution.”

Italian authorities claimed that Hanafi was sentenced in 2014 to four years in prison over assaulting an Italian police officer, and was supposed to be released in 2018.

Shoukry has extended his condolences to Hanafi’s family and demanded the Egyptian Embassy in Rome complete all procedures required for the body to be restored to Egypt.

Ties between Egypt and Italy have been strained since the suspected murder of Giulio Regeni, an Italian Cambridge University graduate who was found dead on the side of a road and is believed to have been abducted and tortured to death in Egypt.

Egyptian authorities alleged that militants from the Muslim Brotherhood committed this crime to embarrass the Egyptian government and destabilize relations between Italy and Egypt.

However, although Egypt's media and government deny it, the Egyptian police is strongly suspected of involvement in Regeni’s murder in Europe, as Reuters reported three Egyptian intelligence officials and three police sources independently claimed Regeni had been in police custody before his death.