Sentence overturned on appeal for the death of Roberta Repetto, the 40-year-old woman killed by the metastasis of a tumor treated with herbal teas and herbs by a 'holy man' and her collaborators from the Anidra holistic center in Liguria.
Paolo Bendinelli, manager and guru of the centre, was acquitted while the sentence for the Brescia doctor Paolo Oneda was reduced from 3 years and 4 months to 1 year and 4 months.
For the psychologist Paola Dora, the acquittal was confirmed.
Repetto was also subjected, without anesthesia, to the removal of a mole on the kitchen table of the center.
The general prosecutor's office had requested the conviction for voluntary homicide, with possible malice, mistreatment, circumvention of an incapable person and sexual violence.
In the first instance, the defendants were convicted of manslaughter at the end of the summary trial and were acquitted of the charges of sexual assault and circumvention of an incompetent person.
The woman, whose family members are assisted by the lawyers Giuseppe Sciacchitano and Andrea Andrei, later died in October 2020 at the San Martino hospital where she had arrived in desperate conditions.
It is good practice to accept and respect the sentences but I think it is humanly painful for me, at this moment, to be able to do so". Thus Rita Repetto, Roberta's sister, after the acquittal on appeal of the 'saint' Paolo Bendinelli and the reduction of the sentence for the doctor Paolo Oneda. "Today I am truly speechless - he adds -, embittered and sad because my sister did not get the justice she deserves.
She is mind-blowing."
"We are extremely satisfied because the thesis that we have always supported has been recognised: there was no sect".
This is the comment of Paolo Bendinelli's lawyers, Alessandro Vaccaro and Francesca Pastore, after the acquittal sentence on appeal.
"The whole accusatory castle has melted like snow in the sun. The sentence which said that the fact does not exist speaks for itself. Let's remember that Bendinelli spent a year and a half in prison".
The lawyers Syriani and Morta, who defend the doctor Oneda, are also satisfied.
"We believe that the aggravating conscious fault has been excluded and the mitigating factors have been recognised."
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