A public campaign on the "pathogenicity" of CPRs — that is, on the possible health effects on people detained in them — and not a network for producing false certificates. This is the version put forward by Nicola Cocco, an infectious disease specialist and expert in migration medicine, so far the only person under investigation for criminal association in the Ravenna Prosecutor's Office inquiry into alleged certificates of unsuitability issued to prevent migrants from being transferred to Centres for Repatriation (Centri di permanenza per il rimpatrio).
According to the prosecutorial hypothesis, the investigation allegedly uncovered a nationwide coordination effort aimed at obstructing transfers to CPRs through unsuitability certifications. Cocco spoke in Milan, at the office of lawyer Eugenio Losco, following the 23 searches carried out in recent days targeting doctors in various Italian cities, and he rejected the prosecution's reconstruction of events. "We did not set up an association that incited doctors to produce false certificates," he said, explaining that the campaign had been launched to discuss conditions in the centres and the criteria for evaluating their impact on health.
He went on to explain that the so-called "pre-filled forms" — regarded by investigators as ready-made templates for unsuitability certifications — were in fact drafts of campaign documentation incorporating opinions from bioethicists and philosophy of law professors, as well as references to the Code of Medical Ethics and the law on informed consent. Cocco also stressed that he had never signed any of the contested certificates and had never reviewed the clinical documentation of the cases at the centre of the investigation. This prompted him to raise a question about the verification of assessments: "Was there then a medical counter-examination of those patients? Who carried out those assessments again?"
Furthermore, the doctor argued that any errors in clinical management could be attributed to "negligence or lack of skill, but not to fraud." His criticism ultimately concerns, above all, the very nature of CPRs. Drawing a parallel with psychiatric hospitals, Cocco maintained that a place can be challenged even when it is provided for by law. He spoke of "institutional racism" and the "dehumanisation of migrants," stating that "a doctor who swears by a document that places respect for people's bodies and health at its centre cannot accept the existence of places like these."
The president of the National Federation of Orders of Surgeons and Dentists, Filippo Anelli, also weighed in on the matter, urging "caution" in judging doctors' work. "The autonomy and independence of the medical profession must be defended in order to protect patients' health," he said. Without entering into the merits of the investigation, the president observed that "if a doctor has written something false, this constitutes a violation of the code of medical ethics and will be sanctioned, but it is strange," he noted, "that there could be any doubt about whether doctors, outside of their work, are entitled to discuss the situation in repatriation centres."
