He died during TSO treatment: sentences confirmed by the Supreme Court for doctors and nurses

The Supreme Court of Cassation has upheld the kidnapping charges against seventeen healthcare workers at the Vallo della Lucania hospital—six doctors, who also face charges of false accusation, and eleven nurses—in the tragic death of Francesco Mastrogiovanni, the elementary school teacher from Pollica, a hamlet of Acciaroli, a town on the Cilento coast. Mastrogiovanni died after more than eighty hours of compulsory medical treatment, four days of agony during which—as documented by surveillance cameras at the San Luca hospital—he had been kept bound hand and foot in the psychiatric ward of the Lucanian hospital and fasted. All defendants have received suspended sentences, as they are sentences of less than two years in prison, as previously ruled by the Salerno Court of Appeal in its ruling on November 15, 2016. On appeal, the magistrates overturned the nurses' acquittals and also affirmed their responsibility for what happened to Mastrogiovanni, who was subjected to forced medical treatment on the orders of the then mayor of Acciaroli, Angelo Vassallo, who later died in circumstances that remain unclear despite years of investigation. The Supreme Court's verdict was issued yesterday by the Fifth Criminal Section, rejecting the requests of the Attorney General's Office. In a lengthy closing argument, the Court had requested the case be overturned and remanded for a new examination of the alleged crimes, instructing that the position of the medical staff who allowed the victim to die be assuaged. The reasons for the long-awaited decision by the Supreme Court, which points the finger at this highly controversial and frequently used medical practice, will be filed in approximately a month. Caterina Mastrogiovanni, Francesco's sister, led the legal battle against the doctors with the support of Luigi Manconi's association 'A buon diritto'.