Five members of Egypt's national police force are under investigation in Italy in connection to the murder of Giulio Regeni, an Italian researcher whose body was found on the side of a highway in Egypt in February 2016. The news has increased tension in Italian-Egyptian relations, with the Italian side growing increasingly frustrated at the lethargic pace of the Egyptian investigation.

“We have been waiting for three years,” said Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who is also Italy's deputy premier, in a Dec. 4 statement. “I want to maintain good relations with Egypt and I'll do everything to have good economic, cultural, trade and social relations with a friendly country. But as an Italian, I expect the names and surnames of the culprits.”

From the Italian perspective, the Egyptian authorities have been stingy with information and have frequently deflected attention from the Egyptian security services. Egypt's official position was initially that Regeni had been killed in a traffic accident. But in March 2016, just weeks after Regeni's body was discovered, Egypt acknowledged he had been murdered, but held that it was by a criminal gang whose members had all been killed in a shootout with Egyptian security forces.

The Italian public has grown frustrated with the Egyptian inquiry into Regeni's death. Handpainted signs still hang from some buildings in Milan and other cities calling for justice and the truth around the circumstances of Regeni's demise. Italian authorities believe Egypt is stalling and not providing all the information it holds.