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Reports of 37 arrested over Regeni death
Reports follow University’s demands for investigation
E
gyptian police forces have arrested 37 suspects for the killing of Cambridge PhD student Giulio Regeni. The police are reporting that they have traced Regeni’s phone signal to an apartment, where they claim he was killed, according to an Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry AlYoum and since covered in The Times. The 37 arrested have all previously been detained on charges relating to kidnap and murder. However, when asked by The Times, the Egyptian investigations team denied the reports of the arrests, and the strength of the phone evidence is being questioned by the final person to call Regeni. These latest developments come after a number of Cambridge groups united to call for a greater investigation into the Girton student’s death. The University, alongside the Mistress of Girton and the Head of the Department of POLIS, had written to the Egyptian interior minister calling for a “thorough and complete investigation”. This came after 4,600 academics signed an open letter, published in The Guardian, protesting his death. The 28-year-old’s body was found last Thursday 3 February, more than a week after he had gone missing near Tahrir Square, on the 5th anniversary of the protests there. While the cause of death is thought to be a broken vertabrae in his neck, his body showed “clear signs” of torture, according to the prosecutor. Italian newspapers have said that Regeni’s injuries followed a pattern often inflicted upon presumed spies.
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11 February 2016 Vol. 17 Lent Issue 5
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Calls on the Egyptian government came after accusations in the Italian media that the government was connected to Regeni’s death. Egypt’s Interior Minister has denounced these allegations, saying that they are “unacceptable” and “not our policy.” Regeni’s death was originally believed to be the result of a robbery gone wrong, however it has since been revealed that he had been writing newspaper articles critical of the Egyptian government. In his final piece, published after his death in his own name, he denounced the repression and authoritarianism in Egypt and praised “popular and spontaneous initiatives that break the wall of fear”. Regeni had been in Egypt researching unions for his PhD, a topic that has become controversial in recent years. The open letter from academics stated that human rights organisations have revealed that state institutions in Egypt “routinely practise the same kinds of torture that Giulio is reported to have suffered against hundreds of Egyptian citizens each year”. The letter went on to match the University’s call for a full investigation into Regeni’s death, as well as going on to ask for a corresponding investigation into “all instances of forced disappearances, cases of torture and deaths in detention during January and February 2016.” The flag has been flying at half mast at Girton, where a rememberance ceremony has been held. Lukas Fuchs, a student mentored by Regeni, told The Cambridge Student that Regeni had ‘‘friends everywhere’’, and ‘‘knew the Arab region and Egypt very well and he was certainly not naive’’.
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Revealed: £50,000 airline bill from VC Camilla Penney
It has been revealed this week that the University’s Vice-Chancellor spent more than £50,000 on flights and accommodation in 2014/15, and lives in a house worth over £4.5 million. The University and College Union (UCU) submitted Freedom of Information requests to 159 higher education institutions for details of vicechancellors’ expenditures on “flights, hotels, expenses and accommodation.” Cambridge VC, Professor Leszek Borysiewicz, spent £18,151 on hotel accommodation in the 2014/15, second only to Professor Pamela Gillies of Glasgow Caledonian University, and £38,786 on flights, the fourth highest amount out of responding universities. The University chose not to answer questions about the cost of the VC’s accommodation per night. However, he would have to have spent more than 41 nights in hotels in order to rank lower than first in the per night rankings. The question of which class the VC flies was also left blank. Professor Borysiewicz has the most expensive residence of the heads of responding HEIs, with a 2014 valuation placing the house’s worth at £4,518,000. A University spokesperson commented: “As the leader of a global institution, the Vice-Chancellor represents the University externally, both in the UK and abroad. This involves foreign travel and promoting the University’s mission and its vital fundraising objectives. The ViceChancellor’s Lodge is an official residence which is used for University events and for hosting visiting dignitaries from around the world.” UCU’s questions also covered the number of employees paid over £100,000 and the heads of institutions’ salaries. Two of the University’s staff earn over £399,000; however, the VC is A sunny day in Peterhouse deer park, as the spring daffodils and crocuses not amongst them, earning £325,000: a begin to bloom Image: Stevie Hertz 5.5% decrease from 2013/14.