A vast operation by the State Police began at dawn on Wednesday, September 16, with simultaneous interventions from north to south of the country. Also in Tuscany. The officers carried out house, personal, and computer searches against numerous healthcare professionals who may have a role in the alleged network of irregular medical certificates used to prevent the entry of irregular migrants into the Return Centers (Cpr). The investigative activity is coordinated by Sco, the Central Operational Service of the police, as part of the investigation initiated by the Ravenna Prosecutor’s Office, which signed the search warrants executed on the morning of September 16. The goal is to reconstruct the origin of a series of medical certificates issued in various Italian cities and verify whether they were issued regularly or, on the contrary, were falsified to avoid detention in the Cpr.
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Searches in nine cities: over twenty doctors involved
According to what emerges, the recipients of the measures do not coincide – except for one exception – with the eight doctors already registered in the register of suspects. The new searches concern over twenty healthcare professionals active in the cities of Bari, Biella, Bologna, Florence, Livorno, Milan, Rimini, Rome, and Varese. The operations, conducted by the territorial mobile teams, aim to collect paper and digital documentation useful to reconstruct the origin of the certificates under scrutiny by the investigators. The investigators are looking for elements that can clarify whether the “unfitness” attestations were issued based on real clinical conditions or if they were used instrumentally to avoid transfer to the Cpr.
The main investigation
The new investigative thread builds on the previous investigation involving eight doctors who, at the time of the contested facts, served in the Infectious Diseases department of the Ravenna hospital. According to the accusation, those professionals certified the existence of non-existent infectious diseases, declaring “unfitness” for detention in the Cpr for numerous migrants. A practice that, if confirmed, would have allowed several people to avoid transfer to the centers intended for repatriation.
Thirty-four certificates in the spotlight
There are 34 certificates currently at the center of attention of the Ravenna Prosecutor’s Office. The investigators hypothesize the crimes of forgery and interruption of public service. Three of the doctors involved in the first thread have already been suspended from the profession for ten months. The investigation now continues with a broader scope, aimed at verifying whether the alleged practice of irregular certificates was limited to Ravenna or involved a wider network of professionals in other Italian regions.
