Ljubljana’s “Doctor Death” Cleared of All Charges After 3-Year Trial

By , 06 Nov 2018, 18:30 PM News
Ljubljana District Court Ljubljana District Court www.sodisce.si

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STA, 6 November 2018 - Ivan Radan, a neurologist charged with killing four terminally ill patients with lethal injections, was acquitted as a trial that lasted almost three years concluded at the Ljubljana District Court on Tuesday.

Radan had been charged with manslaughter as well as abuse of medical prescriptions, illegal video recording of dying patients and forgery of sick leave notes, crimes for which he faced 20 years in prison. He was found not guilty on all charges.

The presiding judge, Martin Jančar, issued a stern rebuke of the prosecution as he delivered the verdict as he said the prosecutor had focused on the suspect's personal circumstances.

Facts matter, not personality

"If a person is a liar, addict or has a personality disorder ... this does not mean that he is also a murderer," he said.

And because the prosecution focused on Radan's personality, it overlooked the facts of the matter. "The court must presume innocence, it may not presume guilt," he said.

The judge also said the prosecutor, Katarina Bergant, had been indiscriminate in attempting to discredit one of the key expert opinions, by the Austrian forensic expert Wolfgang Kröll.

Kröll was a key witness in the trial and he was unable to confirm that Radan was responsible for his patients' deaths, and indeed the court invoked Kröll's opinion in declaring Radan not guilty.

The court also highlighted the absence of material evidence and being unable to determine the cause of death of any of the suspected victims since they were not autopsied and were subsequently cremated, rendering exhumation impossible.

The judge stressed that patients who die in hospital must be autopsied unless it is determined that the cause of death is unquestionable.

Since death certificates were signed by Radan and several other doctors, this directly implies that they had determined the cause of death did not warrant further scrutiny.

No evidence of lethal injections

"The collected evidence does not allow the conclusion that [Radan] did in fact inject his patients with potassium, nor are there any other circumstances that would indicate he is guilty," the judge said.

The verdict caps almost three years of court proceedings in a landmark case that has been closely watched by medical experts and the lay public alike due to its severity.

Over 100 witnesses were heard by the court and multiple psychological assessments were carried out to determine whether Radan suffered from a god complex.

The goal was to determine whether Radan did in fact administer deadly cocktails of drugs, including lethal doses of potassium, to several terminally ill patients between 2012 and the end of 2014 as suspected.

He was initially charged with the murder of six patients but two charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence and the remaining four murder charges were reduced to manslaughter.

Radan has maintained his innocence throughout the trial, insisting that he only made it look as if he had administered lethal doses of drugs to terminally ill patients to draw attention to poor communication at the intensive care unit of the Ljubljana UKC Neurology Clinic.

In a statement after the verdict, Radan said "the judge said everything" and refused to provide any further comment.

His attorney Gorazd Fišer, asked if he was pleased with the verdict, said he would be pleased when the people finally recognise that "when in doubt, prosecutors indict and courts acquit," rather than expecting that every case will end with a guilty verdict.

Prosecutor Tamara Gregorčič, standing in for Katarina Bergant, argued the court had minimised witness testimony, which could have a chilling effect on witnesses in future trials.

"I think the judgement is not just and true," she said as she announced that the prosecution would lodge an appeal.

Related: Closing arguments made in bizarre trial of doctor accused of killing patients

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