(ANSA) - Rome, April 30 - Doctors let a victim of police brutality die in a Rome prison hospital last October, prosecutors claimed Friday. "A drop of sugar would have been enough to save him," the prosecutors said in winding up a probe. The prosecutors said the doctors failed to carry out even "the most basic checks" on the injured detainee, Stefano Cucchi, 31, an addict with a history of health problems caused by lower blood sugar. "They did not take his pulse or measure his blood-sugar levels," prosecutors said. One doctor was also accused of falsely declaring that Cucchi had died of natural causes while a regional penitentiary official allegedly pressured doctors to report that Cucchi's condition was "good" after a cell beating. Three warders "pushed Cucchi to the floor and kicked him," the prosecutors said. Cucchi's family issued a statement through their lawyer saying the victim had been left "like someone in a concentration camp". In their defence, medical staff have claimed Cucchi, a clerk in a surveying firm with a history of drug problems, refused treatment and, in effect, "caused his own death". Three nurses and the Lazio region official were on Friday added to the initial list of three guards at the Regina Coeli Prison and six doctors at the Pertini Hospital. Indictment requests against the 13 are expected to be filed "shortly," judicial sources said. The medical staff were originally thought to be likely to face negligent manslaughter charges, which carry a shorter term than the charge which is now expected to be laid against them, "abandonment of a helpless person," punishable by up to eight years in jail. Although the three warders are now being accused of deliberately injuring Cucchi, they on the contrary could face lower jail terms than originally thought, when they were expected to face a manslaughter charge. "Taking the manslaughter charge off the table is a serious lapse that could lead to the truth not emerging," protested a prisoners' rights body, Antigone.
The prosecutors have based their case on the latest of three reports into the headline-grabbing case. In the report, court-appointed expert Paolo Arbarello said Cucchi's death could have been avoided with the correct care. "We discovered omissions and negligence in his treatment," said Arbarello, a forensic pathologist from Rome University. "A patient in his condition should have been transferred to an appropriate ward and should have received different treatment". "He was not properly cared for, the severity of his condition was not taken into account and he did not receive treatment that could have prevented his death". Cucchi was transferred to the prison hospital to receive treatment for broken bones and severe bruising after being arrested for possession of a small quantity of drugs. His parents said he was in good health before he was arrested but appeared in court the next day with black eyes and his face covered with bruises. Both the Carabinieri police who arrested Cucchi and the staff at Regina Coeli prison where he was being held denied any responsibility for his injuries. A detainee in an adjacent holding cell said he heard Cucchi being beaten by guards but an internal probe by the prison administration found no evidence of this. In addition to confirming Cucchi's injuries, the forensic pathology report noted he was suffering from hypoglycaemia, liver and pancreatic problems, a low heart rate and severe weight loss at the time of his death. An autopsy shortly after Cucchi' death found he was severely dehydrated and had two broken vertebrae and internal organ damage.
However, it failed to pinpoint the actual cause of death. A parliamentary committee last month concluded that Cucchi had died from severe dehydration, which had caused him to lose over ten kilograms in six days. But it also found that hospital staff were at least partly responsible, speculating that staff failed to check up on him regularly and were "probably unaware" of the gravity of his condition. Cucchi's family have voiced fears that those they think were responsible for letting him die might "get off". The case has been closely followed by the media in Italy and has added to a debate about overcrowding and poor conditions in the nation's jails. Italy's swelling prison population and dated facilities are among factors blamed for a record 72 jailhouse suicides last year and another 22 so far in 2010.