Healthy interests run into trouble

Twenty-three people are to stand trial on charges of possessing forged documents to allow unqualified graduate students to enter specialist courses at Naples University medical school.

Among those charged is a young doctor who was recently elected a member of parliament on a platform of stamping out corruption and organised crime in southern Italy.

Only a limited number of students are admitted to the various post-degree courses at the medical school, and these all have to demonstrate an accredited period of internship in a public hospital or local health centre.

The alleged forgeries involve documents purporting to show that the students had the required service as interns.

The people charged are would-be graduate students and local health officials who are said to have signed affidavits to support their entry to specialised courses.

Some of the students are accused of forging the documents themselves, imitating the necessary signatures and "borrowing" official rubber stamps from health authority offices.