A top pediatric heart surgeon was placed under house arrest on Tuesday on charges ranging from extortion to misappropriation of funds and fraud.
Dr. Carlo Marcelletti, who heads the pediatric ward at Palermo's Civic Hospital, is suspected of taking bribes to ensure preferred treatment, accepting kickbacks from health sector suppliers and defrauding the national health service.
He was also placed under investigation for possession of child pornography after police found several images of a nude minor stored in his cellphone.
Police were able to identify the minor, a female, by tracing the number of the cellphone used to send the hardcore pictures to Marcelletti and which was registered in the name of the girl's mother
''The investigation of Dr. Marcelletti was carried out by police with the utmost professionalism and reserve and had nothing to to with his medical abilities,'' Palermo Police Chief Giuseppe Caruso said.
Officials at the hospital said they would press charges against Marcelletti should the case against him prove to be true.
Marcelletti won a reputation as a top surgeon for successfully operating on a number of Siamese twins, including four-month-old Greek twins in 2003 who were joined at the temples with a single membrane wall separating their brains.
In 2000, a case of conjoined twins born in Peru who were brought to Marcelletti for treatment sparked international headlines and a highly publicised ethical debate.
The controversy was triggered by Marcelletti's decision to sacrifice one infant, the weaker one, to save the life of the other.
Tragically, both babies died during the ensuing nine-hour operation.
Before coming to Palermo, Marcelletti was a heart surgeon at Rome's world-famous Bambin Gesu' children's hospital.
