Health Minister Maurizio Sacconi on Monday described criminal charges of coercion lodged against him by the Italian Radical Party in a right-to-die case as ''absurd''.
The Radical Party made the charges after Sacconi issued a guideline that blocked a clinic from agreeing to help end the life of 38-year-old Eluana Englaro, who is in an irreversible coma, in accordance with a supreme court ruling.
''It's absurd that this act has taken on a criminal dimension. This is intimidation, but I'm not the type to be intimidated,'' Sacconi said.
Rome public prosecutor's office has sent the case to the Ministers' Tribunal, a special organ dealing exclusively with crimes allegedly committed by ministers, who will decide whether it should go ahead.
In a landmark ruling, the Cassation Court in November confirmed a Milan appeals court decision that the feeding tube could be removed from Eluana, who has been in a permanent vegetative state for 17 years following a car accident.
The ruling has split Italy, with Catholic politicians and the Vatican claiming it authorises euthanasia and libertarians hailing it as a victory for individual liberty.
The publicly assisted Udine clinic in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region offered its services in December after the Lombardy region, where Eluana is cared for by nuns at a Lecco clinic, refused to make clinics or health workers available to help her end her life.
But the last-minute guideline issued by Health Minister Maurizio Sacconi stating that the removal of feeding tubes from patients in a vegetative state was ''illegal'' halted her transfer to Udine.
The clinic confirmed last week that it was withdrawing its offer out of fear of the consequences of ignoring Sacconi's guideline, which some observers claimed was a veiled threat to strip it of its funding and certification.
Beppino Englaro, who has fought for more than a decade for a dignified end to his daughter's life, has yet to find a clinic willing to remove the tube.
