Rome, 17 December 2021 – Ill-treatment and torture to the detriment of patients with serious physical and mental disabilities, scam against the ASP of Palermo and corruption. Run 35 precautionary measures and ordered the seizure of assets for a total value of 6.7 million euros. These are the numbers of the operation called “Relax“- from the name mockingly given by the suspects to the stanza, where the victims came locked up, humiliated and left without food or water – carried out by the financiers of the Provincial Command who carried out the precautionary measures ordered by the investigating judge of Termini Imerese, at the request of the prosecutor, against 35 people, of whom in prison, seven placed under house arrest, five subject to the obligation of residence in the municipality of residence and thirteen recipients of the interdicting measure of the prohibition of exercising professional activities for one year.
The suspects are suspected, in various capacities, of the crimes of torture, ill-treatment, kidnapping, corruption, aggravated fraud for obtaining public funds, embezzlement and fraud in public supplies. With the same provision, the investigating judge ordered the preventive seizure of a non-profit organization which, under an agreement with the Palermo ASP, provides ‘continuous cycle’ rehabilitation services in favor of 23 patients with severe physical and mental disabilities, as well as assets and financial resources for a total value of over € 6.7 million.
“Torture, ill-treatment, kidnappings”
The investigations conducted by the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Palermo – Public Spending Protection Group developed through two parallel lines. The first made it possible to bring out very serious ones offenses to the detriment of the 23 patients of the center, which the investigating judge of Termini Imerese deemed suitable for configuring the cases of torture, ill-treatment and kidnapping. All the medical and paramedical personnel serving at the non-profit organization, with the complacency of the property, would have subjected the patients to physical and psychological abuse, to severe suffering and humiliation. The guests, all suffering from severe mental disabilities, were systematically subjected to punishments by the staff of the structure (such as the fast), a beatings (jerks, kicks, slaps), to offenses, and were often locked up in a room of a few square meters completely empty and without toilets, which they called “relaxation room“, for several hours, in the dark and without any assistance, begging to go out, begging for water or food, forced to carry out their physiological needs on the floor.
“Massive administration of therapies”
The investigations also made it possible to highlight the arbitrary e massive administration from drug therapies, not justified by medical and health reasons, but by the will to maintain sedati patients, to avoid complications during their work shifts. Hence the contestation of the crime of torture formulated by the investigating judge, who highlighted that “the guests of the center are subjected to a lifestyle that is not excessive to define contrary to the principle of humanity” and that “they serve the penalty of their disability on a daily basis. with their being subjected to systematic torture that aggravate their mental condition and devastate their body “.
“Aggravated fraud and corruption”
The other line of investigations concerned the administrator and the members of the association, who, through the simulation of the non-profit form of the body, as well as thanks to the use of false documentation (plans, technical reports, quarterly reports of the services provided), managed to achieve accreditation with the Region and the subsequent agreement with the Palermo ASP, obtaining, in the last five years, public funds for 6.2 million euros. Furthermore, a part of these funds, over 470 thousand euros, was used by the shareholders for private purposes (settlement of undue payments, purchase of cars, payment of trips and stays in accommodation facilities, purchase of food and wine products, jewelery).
In addition to the hypothesis of aggravated fraud for the achievement of public funds and embezzlement, episodes of corruption of an official of the ASP of Palermo who allegedly “permanently enslaved his function to the economic interests of the association”, obtaining the hiring of his son and daughter-in-law, as well as the crime of fraud in public supplies, having been provided healthcare services in favor of patients far from the expected quality standards.
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