Police on Monday ordered 14
employees suspended from public service for six months for
suspected abuse of disabled patients at a clinic in the province
of Cagliari.
The investigation was prompted by a report from an employee
at the clinic run by the Italian Association of Assistance for
Spastic Persons (AIAS) in Deciomannu, about 17 km northwest of
the Sardinian capital.
The employees are suspected of maltreatment, beatings,
personal injuries and failure to report malpractice.
The investigation began in 2014 and the victims are all
adult patients at the clinic.
The prosecutor's office had requested house arrest but the
preliminary judge ordered the suspension instead, ANSA sources
said.
One of the fourteen suspended is AIAS administrative
director Vittorio Randazzo, 46, a former regional councillor
with the small, centrist Union of Christian Democrats (UDC), who
is also being probed for graft for alleged misuse of state funds
while a regional councillor.
Randazzo is accused together with centre director Sandra
Murgia, 58, of failure to carry out responsibilities and failure
to report malpractice.
Randazzo is the son of AIAS founder Bruno Randazzo.
Investigators said 36 patients, all of whom have serious
mental health diagnoses and some who also have trouble walking,
were victims of physical and verbal abuse.
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