(ANSA) - Milan, July 20 - Controversial fertility doctor
Severino Antinori was indicted Wednesday for forcibly removing
eight eggs from a Spanish patient at his Milan clinic.
Antinori, 70, was arrested May 13 at Rome's Fiumicino
Airport following a complaint by the 24-year-old nurse, who was
being treated for an ovarian cyst.
The woman told police she was bound, sedated, forced
to undergo removal of her eggs and deprived of her cell phone
throughout the procedure.
Antinori has accused the nurse of being a member of the
so-called Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group.
"She was in ISIS. She alleged that (crime) because I
discovered her," Antinori told Italian TV.
Asked about the signs of violence the nurse showed, the
gynaecologist said she did it to herself.
The judge who wrote his arrest warrant said Antinori
displayed "indifference" to the victim's dignity, that he was
"clouded by the goal of making money" and that he was a danger
to society because he might commit similar crimes.
Antinori's two secretaries who were placed under house
arrest were described as "willing to do anything to satisfy
their employer's wishes".
"The urgent need to obtain suitable eggs that could be
immediately implanted in clients' uteruses for the exclusive
purpose of maximising profit" is the "motive" that allegedly
drove Antinori and his two secretaries to "unscrupulous
behaviors" including "violent deprivation of personal freedom",
the judge wrote.
Antinori shot to worldwide fame in 1994 when his pioneering
techniques made a 63-year-old woman become the oldest ever to
have given birth. He called the indictment "a persecution".
Trial begins November 17.
Fertility doc Antinori indicted
'Forcibly removed eggs from patient' says court