Egypt Says Italian Request for Phone Records in Regeni Probe 'Unconstitutional'

Egypt's assistant state prosecutor said on Saturday Italy had demanded thousands of phone records to investigate the murder of student Giulio Regeni in Cairo, charging that the request was unconstitutional.

Mostafa Suleiman told a press conference that Italian investigators had made the demand during an inconclusive meeting in Rome last week that prompted Italy on Friday to recall its ambassador from Cairo.

He said Italian investigators asked for records of "all subscribers in areas in where (Regeni) lived, where he disappeared and where his body was found", Suleiman said, adding the number could even reach a million.

"This demand conflicts with and violates the Egyptian constitution, and would constitute a crime," he said.

Suleiman added that the Italian investigators "conditioned further judicial cooperation on this demand" but the Egyptian delegation in Rome flatly refused.

Rome announced it was recalling its ambassador over lack of progress in the probe into Regeni's brutal murder.

The 28-year-old Cambridge University PhD student was in Egypt researching labor unions when he disappeared on January 25.

His badly mutilated body was found more than a week later on the side of a road.

Italian officials suspect the student was killed by elements in the Egyptian security services. Their Egyptian counterparts have maintained there is no basis for such claims.

Egypt's presentation of a theory that a criminal gang carried out the murder has been greeted with outraged skepticism in Italy and has helped fuel public anger over the case, putting intense pressure on Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to be seen to be getting tough with Cairo.