ROME -- A witness has told Italian investigators he saw Giulio Regeni, the Italian researcher murdered in Cairo, being arrested and taken away by the Egyptian police on the night of the 28-year old's disappearance on Jan. 25, Il Messaggero reported.

 The Egyptian witness' testimony, arising from interrogations by Italian investigators in Cairo on Thursday evening, may be the crucial key to solving the mystery behind Regeni's assassination and alleged torture, suspected to have been by the Egyptian security forces. The witness told a local newspaper that he saw Regeni being arrested and taken away in a police van on the night of his disappearance, but it is yet to be confirmed whether Regeni was certainly the man he saw.

 Italian investigations are underway in Egypt's capital, where Regeni's body was found on Feb. 3 naked from the waist down, with fractured bones, ears torn off and cuts all over his body.

 Colleagues of Regeni's from the American University in Cairo, where he had been doing research into the situation for independent trade unions in Egypt following the 2011 uprising, have reported that Regeni was photographed by a stranger during a trade union meeting in Cairo on Dec. 11. Regeni had been attending the meeting as background research for an article he was preparing for 'Il Manifesto', which he had requested to publish under a pseudonym for fear of reprisals directed at him as well as the contacts he had acquired in the Egyptian opposition.

 The three colleagues told Italian prosecutors that Regeni had told them about the meeting, saying that "no one Giulio knew said they had seen [the man who photographed him] before, and that the man didn't speak at all during the meeting. He kept to the side, took the photo and then left. It was frightening for Giulio."

 The three colleagues who reported this have now left Egypt for fear of being targeted by Egyptian authorities.

 Investigators are now pursuing the possibility that Regeni's murder was linked to the article he was writing, published by 'Il Manifesto' after his death despite opposition to this from his family.

 Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has made remarks on the case, saying that Italy's friendship with Egypt depends on the truth behind Regeni's death being disclosed. "It's a dramatic case and I once again I express my condolences to Guilio's family," he said. "I say what we have already said to the Egyptians - friendship is a precious thing and it is only possible with the truth."

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