A Milan court on Monday
acquitted right-to-die activist Marco Cappato of charges of
assisting suicide after he helped 40-year-old blind and
tetraplegic Italian ex-DJ Fabiano Antoniani, better known as DJ
Fabo, take his own life at a Swiss clinic in 2017.
The case returned to Milan after the Constitutional Court
ruled in September that assisting suicide is lawful in some
cases when asked for an opinion on it.
Cappato, a Radical party member, said "I acted for freedom of
choice and fo thr right to individual self-determination".
He was acquitted with the full formula of "a crime was not
committed," judicial sources said.
The sentence was greeted with a long round of applause from
the court.
DJ Fabo's former girlfriend, Valeria Imbrugno, said he would
have celebrated the verdict.
"What I can say is that Fabiano today, together with me,
would have celebrated because it is a battle he believed in from
the start," she said.
"It is a battle for the freedom of all".
The sentence was hailed by Italian right to die groups and
progressive politicians.
The head of the right to die Luca Coscioni Association,
Filomena Gallo, said "today's acquittal of Marco Cappato gives
freedom to freedom."
She said that "the road that we started out on was the right
one, from the start".
Gallo also called for the Italian political world to now take
action on the basis of the sentence and legislate on end of life
issues.
"Politics is at a standstill on these issues and there has
not been any law on end of life issues and euthanasia since
2013," she said.
The Coscioni association's lawyer, Massimo Rossi, said the
verdict represented a "step forward towards civilisation, not
only juridical".
The Italian Green Party said "Cappato's acquittal is an act
of civilisation".
Francesca Businarolo of the ruling anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement (M5S), who is the chair of the Lower House justice
committee, said she hoped that "the principles established by
the sentence will soon be enshrined in our legal system, and we
are working to ensure that".
Civil Service Minister Fabiana Dadoine said "parliament must
overcome its misgivings and act to raise the level of
civilisation of our country".
The prosecutor in the case, Tiziana Siciliano, called for
"lawmakers to give a law to others that are hoping".
Conservative MPs said the law "sets a dangerous precedent"
and recalled that the Catholic Church is against euthanasia and
assisting suicide.
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