Bologna, September 18, 2026 – The Policlinico Sant’Orsola di Bologna stands alongside the two doctors from the Infectious Diseases department involved, as persons informed of the facts, in the investigation by the Ravenna Prosecutor’s Office into alleged false certificates of unfitness for the Cpr. It assures “full cooperation” with the investigators, but will remain close to the two professionals “with firmness and discretion.”
“We feel the duty to show our solidarity to the two professionals at a moment we know is very difficult – reads the message from the general management of the Policlinico expressing closeness to the doctors – we await the results of the ongoing investigations, to which the Policlinico assures full cooperation, with the utmost respect for the work of the police forces, judiciary, and investigators.” The two professionals, the Sant’Orsola leadership recalls, “are not under investigation. Being taken to the police station at dawn and seeing their work tools seized is an experience that can understandably generate concern and tension. Especially if it happens to those who have simply done their job, without being the subject of any accusation.”
“We do not leave the two professionals alone”
“Anyone who is a doctor knows they have important responsibilities and must face delicate situations every day – adds the Policlinico management -. It is part of the profession. But such an invasive, personal, and unexpected situation is not part of what a doctor expects to experience.” The health checks on people accompanied by the police forces, the Sant’Orsola leaders note, “have always been part of our Policlinico’s activity, and are carried out with the same care and professionalism reserved for every other service. Our doctors have performed and will continue to perform their work with competence, attention, and a sense of responsibility, according to science and conscience.”
“At a time when balance, prudence, and humanity are needed – concludes the hospital management – the Policlinico will be beside its two colleagues with firmness and discretion. We are a large, concrete, and real community, and in difficult moments we cannot leave the people who are part of it alone.”
Cocco: “We have fueled a public debate on the pathogenicity of the Cpr”
In recent hours, Nicola Cocco, a doctor under investigation for criminal association also in the inquiry into alleged false certificates to avoid transferring migrants to the Cpr, spoke during a press conference in Milan: “We have built a campaign that has led to discussing in this country the pathogenicity of these places, places where migrant people suffer, endure violence, and die. We did not start an association that incited doctors to make false certificates,” said Cocco. “What we did was provide evidence of this pathogenicity and define the criteria, the ethical dilemmas that the doctors themselves posed to us,” he added.
According to Cocco, the campaign “has always operated in the open, with public meetings, participation in conferences, congresses, and the publication of articles,” and was “aimed at fueling a public debate and a stance for doctors, certainly not to commit illegal acts.”
“I would declare that no one is fit for the Cpr”
“I have never signed a certificate because I do not work in the contexts where these documents are signed,” Cocco said. “I am an expert in migration medicine, I am an infectious disease specialist.” When asked if he would sign a fitness certificate for the Cpr, Cocco replied no, “I would not sign the fitness certificate, or rather, I would certify that no one is fit for the Cpr.” As for the contested certificates, he said he “has never seen them.” If then “there was a procedural error, it is an error of negligence, incompetence, whatever you want, but it is not a forgery. Saying it is a forgery would be like saying Muhammad showed up and instead they wrote Ahmed,” he explained.
Regarding the contested documents, Cocco asked: “Was there a medical counter-expertise of that patient? Who made that evaluation again? From one case, two cases, three specific cases, can the existence of an association even be reconstructed with a system that produces forgeries at a national level? This reading seems very far-fetched to me.”
Cocco responded regarding the alleged “mapping” of unfitness certificates mentioned in the investigation documents: “The mapping, as the Mobile Squad agents saw during the search, is a Google Maps map where I marked various places, hospitals or universities, from where we were contacted by doctors, students, or other health figures to hold public meetings, always, never done anything secretive. Unfortunately, I have never had lists of militant doctors who made unfitness certificates.” “If only I had the tools to do something like what the Ravenna Prosecutor’s Office is looking for, well-structured, with many names, with many certificates,” concluded the infectious disease specialist.
