Marco Cappato and Mina Welby Acquitted of Cooperating with Davide Trentini’s suicide

Source: dmd (Derecho a morir dignamente)

On Monday, July 27, the court in Massa (Italy) acquitted Marco Cappato and Mina Welby (of the Luca Coscioni association) of the crime of cooperation to suicide they had self-incriminated with. The sentence is a new victory for that Italian association which has already achieved two favorable sentences with its strategy of civil disobedience.

Welby and Cappato had accused themselves of cooperating with the suicide of Davide Trentini, a 53-year-old Italian. Suffering from multiple sclerosis since he was 27, Trentini wanted to travel to Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal, to end a life he no longer wanted. He died in April 2017 being in sound mind.

This sentence was passed just 7 months after the Italian Constitutional Court ruled that assisting in suicide was not punishable in some circumstances and asked the Parliament for a clear regulation of euthanasia. This verdict was also instigated by Marco Cappato with a similar dirty trick: he helped Fabiano Antonioni (DJ Fabo) to travel to Switzerland to die and he incriminated himself.

It was not clear that the Constitutional verdict would be applied once again because Trentini was not kept alive thanks to a machine or a treatment, while Antonioni was so kept alive. Nonetheless, they both had irreversible diseases that caused them excruciating pain and both were in full possession of their mental faculties to make decisions.

The Prosecutor’s Office had requested for Welby and Cappato the minimum sentence (3 years and 4 months) after acknowledging that they had “acted in Davide Trentini’s best interest” and asserting that he believed in “their noble intentions”. He demanded “a sentence with all the attenuating circumstances” and considered that their action did fall within the crime of cooperation in suicide comprised in the Italian penal code. This rule is even stricter than the Spanish one, which only penalizes “necessary and direct cooperation” and leaves information, accompaniment or even financing a trip to Switzerland unpunished.

Civil Disobedience Until Euthanasia Is Decriminalized

Before hearing the sentence, Mina Welby, co-president of the Luca Coscioni association, asked to be jailed if she was convicted. Marco Cappato, for his part, declared that they were ready to “accept with the utmost respect tomorrow’s verdict, whatever the outcome, including their sentence.”

They explained that their act is aimed at exhorting the Italian Parliament to take euthanasia regulation seriously. “The conversational partner of our act of civil disobedience is the Italian Parliament… whom we have been asking for 7 years to pay attention to this matter,» Cappato explained on Facebook.

After their acquittal, Cappato insisted that he is ready to resume “the scheme of civil disobedience, helping in any way, with money or accompanying those who have decided that they no longer want to live; everyone has the right to choose the end of his life”. “We helped Trentini out of a moral duty and I would do it again.” Welby claimed she would do it again, too.

Both demanded the Italian Parliament to listen to the sentences and the population, and to start working once and for all on the decriminalization of euthanasia.

Source: dmd (Derecho a morir dignamente)

https://derechoamorir.org/2020/07/28/absuelven-a-marco-cappato-y-mina-welby-de-cooperacion-con-el-suicidio-de-davide-trentini/?fbclid=IwAR1SZJ4OvQYBMMX_KtalnqXg5R4sEMierOEwcv0jp5CkwkssHeVUqxiI4Xc