Suspected abuse of disabled patients (3)

(ANSA) - Cagliari, February 15 - 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.