The Bari Court sentenced the 66-year-old oncologist from Bari Giuseppe Rizzi, a former medical director of the John Paul II Cancer Institute in Bari, to nine years in prison, accused of extortion for having deceived 16 terminal patients.
The professional, who was immediately fired for disciplinary reasons by the Oncology - according to the indictment - was charged up to 7 thousand euros for each injection of a drug that he said "miraculous", thus giving the sick false hopes of recovery and forcing them to pay hundreds of thousands of euros (over 2.5 million in total in ten years) for health services to which patients were entitled free of charge.
Rizzi, who has been under house arrest since May 2021, allegedly acted with the complicity of his co-accused partner, the lawyer Maria Antonietta Sancipriani, who ran a Caf in Bari used illegally as a medical clinic if necessary.
The woman, who was tried together with her husband with an abbreviated rite, was sentenced to 5 years and six months.
Prosecutor Marcello Quercia had asked for 10 years for the doctor and four for his wife.
Both have been banned from public office in perpetuity;
for Rizzi, the termination of the employment relationship with the administration of origin was ordered.
Husband and wife were also sentenced to pay, jointly and severally, the provisional compensation to the 13 civil parties for a total of 329 thousand euros.
Of these, 30 thousand euros to Oncology, 10 thousand to the Order of Doctors and the remaining part to 11 patients.
Further reparation of the damage may be requested by the parties in civil proceedings.