Four doctors indicted over death of journo Purgatori

A Rome preliminary hearing judge on

Friday indicted four doctors who treated acclaimed journalist

Andrea Purgatori before his death in July 2023.

Radiologist Gianfranco Gualdi, his assistant Claudio Di Biasi

and Dr. Maria Chiara Colaiacomo, both members of his team, and

cardiologist Guido Laudani, have been charged with manslaughter.

The trial is scheduled for January 12.

Journalist, screenwriter and author Purgatori died of a sudden

illness in Rome aged 70 on July 19, 2023.

Purgatori dedicated himself in particular to reporting on

Italy's several unsolved 'mysteries', including the case of the

Vatican teenager Emanuela Orlandi who went missing in 1983 and,

most notably, the Ustica air disaster of June 27, 1980 in which

81 people died.

The journalist, a passionate environmentalist, also used the

platform provided by his successful TV programme

"Atlantide" on La7 to raise awareness about the climate crisis.

Purgatori also served as President of Greenpeace Italia from

2014 to 2020.

In a statement to ANSA his family described him as "a brilliant

mind, who we remember most recently in the La 7 programme

Atlantide where he was an author and presenter, and before that

as a war correspondent and author of the most important Italian

judicial enquiries, then again as the author and scriptwriter of

many films and television dramas including Il Muro di Gomma,

Fortapasc and Il Giudice Ragazzino".

Condolences poured in from colleagues and politicians on both

sides.

More from newsGlobal