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PATIENT

Italian doctor sued for ‘refusing Easter visit’

A doctor in Locorotondo, a town in the southern Italian province of Bari, who took a call from the son of a bedridden patient urgently requiring a tracheostomy tube change at home, is being sued for allegedly failing to assist the woman.

Italian doctor sued for 'refusing Easter visit'
Doctor photo: Shutterstock

The woman’s son realized on Friday that the tube, a device that enables a person to breathe properly, was damaged and needed to be replaced.

But after calling the surgery, which is managed by the local health service, ASL, he was told by a doctor on duty that the family doctor was unable to perform the procedure as he was away for Easter, La Repubblica reported.

Instead of offering another solution, the doctor advised the son to “call back on Tuesday”.

However, when contacted by La Repubblica, a spokesperson from ASL said that there were doctors available, they simply did not want to go to the patient’s home.

Police have now identified the doctor on duty and have reported him to the public prosecutor.

Italy’s health minister, Beatrice Lorenzin, described the case as “shameful”.

“This should not have happened in Italy and I hope it won’t happen again,” she was quoted as saying in La Repubbica.

“The person responsible for this shameful episode will have to answer the public prosecutor, the managers at ASL and the order of doctors. It must not cast a shadow over the work done by the tens of thousands of doctors who work every day, even during holidays, to ensure the health of citizens.”

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DOCTOR

Syrian doctor in Germany accused of war crimes

A Syrian doctor living in Germany is being investigated on suspicion of carrying out crimes against humanity at a military hospital in the war-torn country.

Syrian doctor in Germany accused of war crimes
A police wagon in front of the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe. Photo: DPA

Federal prosecutors suspect the man of beating and torturing men arrested by the Syrian regime while working as a doctor in the hospital in the city of Homs, a report in Spiegel magazine Friday said.

The federal prosecutor's office in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe declined to comment when approached by AFP. 

The man, identified only as Hafiz A., reportedly moved to Germany in 2015 and now lives and works as a doctor in the state of Hesse.

READ: Germany plans to deport 'dangerous' Syrian criminals 

Two witnesses told investigators that the man and a colleague withheld medication from an epileptic patient and then forced him to take a pill that caused his condition to rapidly deteriorate.

The doctor and other men finally beat the patient to death, the witnesses have alleged. His family is said to have found his body the next day with bloody wounds on his face and holes in his skull.

Two further witnesses, former doctors at the military hospital, said the man had also intentionally operated on an opponent of the regime without anaesthetic.

He is also alleged to have poured alcohol onto another man's genitals and then set him on fire.

The accused has informed his lawyer that he denies all the accusations, the report said.

According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, at least 60,000 people have been killed under torture or as a result of terrible conditions in detention centres since the start of the uprising against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.

In April, the first court case worldwide over state-sponsored torture by the Assad regime opened in Germany.

The two defendants are being tried on the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows a foreign country to prosecute crimes against humanity.

Germany has taken in more than 700,000 Syrian refugees since the start of the conflict.

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