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| Africa North | |
| Egyptian kops wipe out kidnapping gang in Cairo | |
| 2016-03-25 | |
| CAIRO: Egyptian security forces Thursday in Cairo shot dead members of a criminal gang that specialized in abducting foreigners by posing as policemen, the Interior Ministry said. The only foreigner reported missing in Egypt in recent months was Italian Ph.D. student Giulio Regeni, whose body was found in a ditch on the edge of Cairo, but the ministry in its statement made no mention of his case. Regeni disappeared in Cairo on Jan. 25 and his body, bearing signs of torture, was found nine days later. “The security forces on Thursday managed to track down a gang in new Cairo that used to pose as policemen. It specialized in abducting foreigners and robbing them,” the ministry said. “There was an exchange of fire with the police and all members of the gang were killed,” the statement said, without giving a toll. Italian media and Egyptian opposition figures suspect Regeni was abducted and killed by elements of the Egyptian security forces, an allegation Cairo has steadfastly denied.
Egyptian police said they found identity documents of slain Italian student Giulio Regeni on Thursday inside an apartment linked to a gang robbing foreigners, hours after killing all its four members in a fire exchange. Egypt's interior ministry posted on its Facebook page photos of Regeni’s passport as well as his American University in Cairo and Cambridge University ID cards, saying the documents were in a "red handbag bearing the Italian flag" along with other items such as his credit card and two mobile phones. The apartment, located in Qalyoubiya Governorate, north of Cairo, is owned by a sister of one of the gang members, 52-year-old Tarek Saad. His wife confirmed while being interrogated that the red handbag belonged to her husband, the ministry's statement added. Earlier on Thursday, Saad, his 26-year-old son and two other men aged 40 and 60 were in a microbus before opening fire at police forces deployed in New Cairo to arrest them, according to the ministry. The security personnel fired back and killed them. | |
| Posted by:badanov |