Egypt's Geneva delegate meets European parliament delegation

Egypt's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Amr Ramadan met on Thursday with a delegation representing the human rights committee of the European Parliament.

The meeting came upon the request of Pier Antonio Panzeri, head of the European parliament human rights committee who is currently on a visit to Geneva leading 17 European lawmakers.

Talks dealt with the decisions issued by the European parliament in the field of human rights.

The Egyptian diplomat said the European parliament should first define the target it seeks by issuing these decisions then determine whether they achieve hoped-for goals.

Ramadan underlined the importance that the European parliament would come out from its isolation and understand the needs of non-European countries, especially the right of development, social and economic rights and cultural privacy of societies.

He also underscored the need not to restrict interaction with countries to listening to complaints of a few political dissidents and non-governmental organizations that are not committed to the legal framework of their work.

Talks also covered developments in the case of Italian student Giulio Regeni who was found dead in Egypt early 2016.

Ambassador Ramadan said cooperation is going on between the two countries' prosecutions, governments and judicial bodies to find the truth.

This unprecedented cooperation is the result of the strong relations binding Egypt with Italy, he said. But he made clear that such investigations take time.

The Egyptian diplomat said the Egyptian authorities are also seeking the truth behind the death of Egyptian young man Hani Henafi in a Rome prison lately and Egyptian youth Mohamed Baher Sobhi, whose body was found on train tracks in Naples in April.

Also, Egypt asked Italy, via official channels, to unravel circumstances behind the death of 11 Egyptians in Italian prisons this year, Ramadan told the European delegation.

Source: MENA