Alba Veronica Puddu, the 53-year-old doctor from Tertenia, sentenced to life imprisonment in the first degree for aggravated voluntary homicide, circumvention of an incompetent person and fraud, will be subjected to a psychiatric evaluation . According to the accusation, the professional treated patients suffering from tumors with alternative methodologies - such as ultrasound or radiofrequency - which would have reduced the patients' life expectancy and accelerated death.
Today the Assize Court of Appeal of Cagliari, presided over by Judge Massimo Costantino Poddighe, preliminarily decided to subject the accused to an examination by an expert who will be appointed by the Court on 2 February. The request for a technical assessment to understand the capacity of understanding and will of Alba Veronica Puddu was not only requested by the defenders, the lawyers Gianluca Aste and Michele Zuddas, but also by the Attorney General Luigi Patronaggio himself.
At first instance, the Court of Assizes presided over by Judge Tiziana Marogna had sentenced the doctor to life imprisonment with daytime isolation, believing there had been intentional fraud: in other words that she would have knowingly administered therapy which she knew very well would have reduced the expectation of life of terminally ill patients.
The judges had even gone beyond the requests of prosecutor Giovanna Morra who had requested 24 years of imprisonment. « I have never prohibited or discouraged my patients from following traditional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Everything they did was a free choice of each", Puddu defended herself during the trial in the Court of Assizes in Cagliari. Adding: «I have always explained to my patients that mine were not oncological therapies and that my treatments could function as pain therapies. I also highlighted the pros and cons of the therapies. All three deceased patients (i.e. 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 far as Fiorini was concerned, he had chosen not to undergo diagnostic tests and treatments."
Statements that had conflicted with wiretaps and evidentiary material, so much so as to convince the Court of Assizes to give her the maximum sentence. Now, as a preliminary matter, the judges of the appeal Assize want to understand whether Alba Veronica Puddu is totally capable of understanding and wanting, before opening the hearing and celebrating the appeal process. Defending the families of the alleged victims are the civil parties Rita Dedola, Mauro Massa and Gianfranco Sollai. On February 2nd we will return to the courtroom and the judges will assign the expert to examine the accused.