CAIRO, Jan 19 (Aswat Masriya) - Italian parliament announced launching a new educational scholarship carrying the name of late student Giulio Regeni who found dead in Egypt last year, Italian newspaper La Repubblica said.

The winner will study for two years in Italy in the high school where Regeni was studying before he went to college. The scholarship is initiated by a group of Regeni's former classmates in the same school.

The scholarship targets Egyptian teenage students aging 16 years old. According to La Repubblica, the scholarship fund is worth EUR 43,000, however Regeni's friends are considering to raise the fund up to USD 1 m to ensure its sustainability.

The initiative was welcomed by Italian institutions and individuals including the national committee in Italy which will take part in selecting the fellow.

The scholarship comes almost one year after Regeni's body was found dead in a roadside ditch on Cairo-Alexandria road, marred by torture marks and bruises in different places.

The young Italian doctoral researcher went missing in Cairo on Jan. 25, 2016, which marked the fifth anniversary of the popular uprising that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.