Two acquittals and one indictment. This was the ruling today in Sassari court by preliminary hearing judge Gian Paolo Piana in the proceedings for the 11 COVID deaths and dozens of infections that occurred in March 2020 within the Cardiology Department of the Santissima Annunziata Hospital.
The judge acquitted Giorgio Steri, general director of ATS, and Bruno Contu, health director of AOU, for not having committed the crime, and sent Fiorenzo Delogu, director of the Office of Hygiene and Public Health, to trial.
All three were charged with causing an epidemic through negligence and multiple manslaughter, and in Delogu's case also with refusal to perform official duties.
The preliminary hearing judge deemed the objection presented by the latter's lawyers regarding the government's "shield" for healthcare workers to be "manifestly unfounded." The defense lawyers are Nicola Satta for Contu, Guido Manca di Bitti for Steri, and Giovanni Sechi and Silvio Piras for Delogu. Renato Figari and Sebastiano Chironi are representing the ATS liquidation and the AOU, as civilly liable.
Delogu's first hearing will be held on January 28 before the panel presided over by Giancosimo Mura.