Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
The doctor, working at Cavadonna prison in Siracusa, is accused of demanding money to draft a report certifying the detainee’s incompatibility with prison conditions. Investigators are examining two other suspicious cases.
A 49-year-old psychiatrist from Lentini has been served with a precautionary interdiction measure suspending him from public service and temporarily banning him from practicing medicine for one year. The professional is accused of attempted extortion.
The order was issued by the preliminary investigations judge of Siracusa at the request of the Prosecutor’s Office and was served by the Carabinieri of the Augusta Company.
The demand for €15,000
According to investigators, the doctor, working as a psychiatrist at Cavadonna prison in Siracusa, allegedly attempted to force a detainee and his partner to improperly hand over €15,000, split into two installments of €7,500 each.
In return, the professional was supposed to draft a psychiatric report aimed at certifying the detainee’s incompatibility with prison conditions, based on a diagnosis that, according to the prosecution’s hypothesis, would have been false.
The doctor’s position, within his role, would have allowed him to diagnose any psychiatric conditions in detainees and certify health conditions incompatible with imprisonment.
Investigations triggered by the partner’s report
The investigation was conducted by the Carabinieri of the Operational and Radio Mobile Unit of the Augusta Company, under the coordination of the Siracusa Prosecutor’s Office. The checks, launched in May 2026 and continuing until October, began following a report filed by the detainee’s partner.
During the investigation, two other similar episodes allegedly emerged. On at least two other occasions, the psychiatrist is said to have drafted reports containing statements deemed ideologically false, declaring incompatibility with prison conditions for two other detainees, despite allegedly knowing, according to the prosecution, that such a condition did not exist.
The additional evidence collected by investigators contributed to the circumstantial case submitted to the judicial authority, which imposed the one-year interdiction measure.
