Life imprisonment with day solitary confinement for Alba Veronica Puddu , the 52-year-old doctor from Tertenia accused of aggravated voluntary homicide, circumvention of the incompetent and fraud .
According to the indictment, the professional treated cancer patients with alternative methods - such as ultrasound or radiofrequencies - which would have reduced the life expectancy of the sick and accelerated death.
Prosecutor Giovanna Morra had asked for 24 years.
«I have never forbidden or discouraged my patients from following traditional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Everything they did was everyone's free choice», Puddu defended himself during the trial in the Court of Assizes in Cagliari.
Adding: «I have always explained to my patients that mine were not cancer therapies and that my treatments could work as pain therapies. I also underlined the pros and cons of the therapies. All three deceased patients (namely Davide Spanu, Franco Garau and Fiorenzo Fiorini, for the latter the murder charge remained standing, ed) were in a terminal phase of the disease. As for Fiorini, he had chosen not to undergo diagnostic tests and treatments».
The defendants of the defendant, Michele Zuddas and Nicola Oggianu, had advanced the request for an expert report to assess whether at the time of the events she was capable of understanding and willing , a request however rejected by the President of the Court Tiziana Marogna.
