Italian Prosecutor orders seizure of Gabrio Bassotti reporting

The Tribunal Court of Perugia in Italy issued an order to seize an online article I published more than 4 years ago, alleging a crime of defamation against the local gastroenterology professor Gabrio Bassotti. The prosecutor tasked the police with the seizure while the trial is still ongoing, to prevent the dissemination of information that Bassotti published clinical studies without ethics approval or patient consent, but with falsified data.

I became aware of this circus because WordPress, the host of For Better Science, received the following court order:

“the single judge,
in the proceedings against SCHNEIDER Leonid, born in Ukraine on 11.30.1977, accused of following fact-crime:

‘Crime of which Articles 595 c 2 e 3 of the criminal code to have have offended the reputation of BASSOTTI prof. Gabrio by publishing on the site BLOG REPUBBLICA.IT with his signature in which it is stated that the aforementioned, in the surgical activity and proceeded with study, for purposes unrelated to them, or, in any case, in the absence of medical and without the knowledge of the patient, to the removal of even healthy births of their organs, furthermore, that the research activity was carried out in an unethical manner and devoid of utility and scientific value. All this also reporting similar passages
content written by third parties.

At an unknown location on 20.2.2020″;

regarding the request for preventive seizure made on 12.4.2024 by the Public Prosecutor in charge, concerning the article under indictment, still accessible on the website called forbetterscience.com, although it appears to have been removed from the blog.repubblica.it website (referred to in the indictment);

Now, my 2020 article referred to the now defunct La Repubblica blog by the Milan-based journalist Sylvie Coyaud, specifically her two blog posts from October 2019 and January 2020 (archived versions here and here). Bassotti sued Coyaud as well, as almost every other Italian pseudo-scientist she every wrote about did. She was even once sued by the former Ferrara rector and unhinged psychopath Giorgio Zauli for being me, and sentenced to a hefty fine for writing on For Better Science and my (now defunct) Twitter account. Now, Bassotti literally sued me for writing as Sylvie Coyaud on La Repubblica blog, and additionally for repeating the same on For Better Science. In Italian law, such accusations are not at all insane.

(I covered up the signatures and names so these officers of justice don’t cry about their privacy being invaded).

Hence the Perugia court order to seize the offending article in whole. Why not an international arrest order for Schneider on terrorism and blasphemy charges? Probably in the making. But for now, this:

…and that, in this case, the forbetterscience.com website does not present the typical characteristics of the online newspaper; noted that, pending the definition of the criminal proceedings (still pending), taking into account the contents of the article in question there is a concrete danger that – free availability and free access to the web page in question may further aggravate the consequences of the crime committed and facilitate the commission of other crimes of the same type and that this can be consistently avoided only through seizure by blackout, however strictly limited to the page on which it is located, in due balance between precautionary needs and protection of the constitutional principle of freedom of expression (art. 21 Constitution).

For these reasons,

According to Article 321 s.p.p., orders seizure by blacking out the page https://forbetterscience.com/2020/02/17/gabrio-bassotti-snip-snip-and-copy-paste-surgeon/ and orders that this provision be sent to the public prosecutor with request for execution.

Perugia, 15.4.2024.”

Now the judge will need to order the total removal of For Better Science and its entire content, because look what I just published. And who knows what other content may offend Italian medical researchers?

My 2020 article was mostly based on a dossier assembled by a reader of mine. It collated not only evidence of massive data manipulation in Bassotti’s papers, but proved that Bassotti’s written declarations – that no ethics approvals or patient consent were required to study their extracted intestinal tissues – have been complete bullshit. The studies could never have been “retrospective” as Bassotti claimed. Here is the dossier proving it:

This paper is a good example:

V. Villanacci, G. Bassotti , R. Nascimbeni , E. Antonelli, M. Cadei , S. Fisogni , B. Salerni , K. Geboes Enteric nervous system abnormalities in inflammatory bowel diseases Neurogastroenterology & Motility (2008) doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2982.2008.01146.x 

“As this was a retrospective study, no individual patient identification was involved and no study‐driven clinical intervention was performed; therefore no ethical approval was necessary”

The paper declared that “Archival full thickness specimens from 32 IBD patients […] were obtained from patients undergoing surgery for severe disease refractory to medical treatment in the period June 2006–June 2007“, at an undisclosed hospital. Editorial history reveals: “Received: 11 February 2008 Accepted for publication: 2 April 2008“. Merely six months passed before surgical removal of patient tissues and submission of the final manuscript, in between experiments were performed, analysed, discussed and written down. Meaning, the surgeons behind this study must have declared freshly removed intestinal tissue as “archival” and “retrospective” and thus free from the need of ethics approval or patient consent just as they were cutting it out from the patients.

The data from that study was then reused in at least TEN other publications:

1. Bassotti et al 2005, doi: 10.1136/jcp.2005.026112
2. Bassotti et al 2006 doi: 10.1136/gut.2005.073197
3. Bassotti et al 2016 doi: 10.1097/MCG.0000000000000578
4. Bassotti et al 2011 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2036.2011.04684.x
5. Bassotti et al 2007 doi: 10.1038/labinvest.3700564
6. Rossi et al 2007 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2982.2007.00914.x
7. lantorno et al. 2007 doi: 10.1097/01.pas.0000213371.79300.a8
8. Bassotti et al 2006 doi: 10.3748/wjg.v12.i29.4609
9. Villanacci et al. 2008 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2982.2008.01146.x
10. Bassotti et al. 2007 doi: 10.3748/wjg.v13.i30.4035

Number 8 and 10 appeared in a journal by the predatory publisher Baishideng.

Also the analysis of this paper exposes the dishonesty and ethics breaches:

L. Reggiani Bonetti, R. Manta , M. Manno , R. Conigliaro , G. Missale , G. Bassotti , V. Villanacci Optimal processing of ESD specimens to avoid pathological artifacts Techniques in coloproctology (2018) doi: 10.1007/s10151-018-1887-x 

“Since this was a retrospective study with anonymously collected data, and without other interventions, no ethical approval from the Ethics Committee was required”

The study refers to “ESD specimens retrospectively collected from the archives of the Institute of Pathology of Modena and the Institute of Pathology of Brescia during a 5-year period (2000–2005).” Yet the referenced tissue extraction method was first described by the authors in 2012 and 2014. Reference 1, Villanacci et al 2012 (published in September 2012), introduces the method yet does not reveal the time frame of patient treatment, but reference 2, Trecca et al 2014 (submitted 9 April 2014) mentions “Data from all patients undergoing colonic ESD in a single center (Department of Operative Endoscopy, USI Group, Rome) in the period December 2012–December 2013 were retrospectively retrieved and analyzed.” All logic dictates that the extracted tissues in 2018 paper couldn’t hail from 2000-2005, but rather from 2012-2013, which the authors declared as “retrospective” just as they were removing them and writing papers about it.

And then there is also inappropriately recycled data in the 2018 paper:

See the dossier above for more. After my article appeared, new issues were found and even more Bassotti papers were flagged on PubPeer.

Bassotti’s key coauthor on almost all of the currently 60 papers with ethics and/or data integrity concerns is Vincenzo Villanacci, professor at the University of Brescia at the pathological anatomy department. The latter has currently 76 papers on PubPeer. Bassotti must be claiming in Perugia court that as doctor and clinical researcher he is never responsible for medical ethics in papers he publishes, and anyway, it was not his papers but Villanacci’s. Hence it is totally unfair that Villanacci refuses to sue me as well, or maybe he already did and I will soon receive a tribunal order to serve 10 years in a Milanese prison.

It seems that Villanacci indeed was the one primarily responsible for procuring intestinal tissues:

M T Bardella, P Velio , B M Cesana , L Prampolini , G Casella , C Di Bella , A Lanzini , M Gambarotti , G Bassotti, V Villanacci Coeliac disease: a histological follow-up study Histopathology (2007) doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2559.2007.02621.x 

“…biopsy samples from 249 coeliac patients (84 men, 165 women) were obtained during this study and were referred to a centralized Pathology Unit where they were examined by a pathologist dedicated to
gastrointestinal pathology (V.V.). The patients consisted of 135 children […] This was a retrospective study; no individual patient identification was involved and no study-driven clinical intervention was performed. Thus, a simplified Institutional Review Board approval for retrospective studies was obtained and patient consent was not considered to be necessary.”

At some point, Villanacci and Bassotti met some Iranians, you can imagine what the result was. “Informed” consent without ethics approval but it’s OK because it’s Iran:

M. Rostami-Nejad , V. Villanacci , R. Mashayakhi , M. Molaei , G. Bassotti, H. Zojaji , D. Mirstatari , K. Rostami , M. R. Zali Celiac disease and Hp infection association in Iran Revista Española de Enfermedades Digestivas (2009) doi: 10.4321/s1130-01082009001200004 

“In the period January 2007-December 2008, four hundred and fifty patients […] were recruited in the out-patient clinic of Taleghani hospital. After obtaining a written informed consent from all subjects upper endoscopy with gastric and duodenal biopsies was carried out.”

Post-hoc ethics approval in Brescia, and for some reason, the patient samples are the same as in Teheran:

Barbara Zanini , Francesca Caselani , Alberto Magni , Daniele Turini , Alice Ferraresi , Francesco Lanzarotto , Vincenzo Villanacci, Nice Carabellese , Chiara Ricci , Alberto Lanzini Celiac disease with mild enteropathy is not mild disease Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology (2013) doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2012.09.027 

“We extracted information for this cohort study from a prospectively maintained database of 1741 CD patients older than age 14 referred from January 1990 to June 2010 to our CD clinic at the Spedali Civili (Brescia, Italy). […] The study protocol was approved by our institution’s ethical committee on December 13, 2011“

More fun with same patient samples:

And these two papers, the second one again in Baishideng predatory journal:

S. Pellegrino, V. Villanacci, N. Sansotta , R. Scarfì , G. Bassotti, G. Vieni , A. Princiotta , C. Sferlazzas , G. Magazzù , G. Tuccari Redefining the intraepithelial lymphocytes threshold to diagnose gluten sensitivity in patients with architecturally normal duodenal histology Alimentary pharmacology & therapeutics (2011) doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2036.2011.04578.x 

“This was a retrospective study […] carried out at the Center for Celiac Disease of the University of Messina”

Kamran Rostami, David Aldulaimi , Geoffrey Holmes , Matt W Johnson , Marie Robert , Amitabh Srivastava , Jean-François Fléjou , David S Sanders , Umberto Volta , Mohammad H Derakhshan , James J Going , Gabriel Becheanu , Carlo Catassi , Mihai Danciu , Luke Materacki , Kamran Ghafarzadegan , Sauid Ishaq , Mohammad Rostami-Nejad , A Salvador Peña , Gabrio Bassotti, Michael N Marsh, Vincenzo Villanacci Microscopic enteritis: Bucharest consensus World Journal of Gastroenterology (2015) doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i9.2593 

More Bassotti/Villanacci trash found after my illegal article was published:

Maria Pina Dore , Vincenzo Villanacci, Alessandra Manca , Sara Soro , Marco Schiavo-Lena , Giuseppe Sabatino , David Yates Graham , Gabrio Bassotti Cherry-tree colon: colonoscopic appearance suggesting drug-induced mucosal injury Internal and emergency medicine (2014) doi: 10.1007/s11739-013-0930-1 

“Data from patients undergoing colonoscopy in the period from January 2004 to January 2007 [….] Since this was a retrospective study, no individual patient identification was involved and no study-driven clinical intervention was performed; therefore, a simplified Institutional Review Board approval was obtained from the local ethics committee.”

Dozen and dozens of papers containing same repetitive images, cropped, rotated, colour-adjusted, showing different patients. Yet not Bassotti’s fake and unethical trash has to be retracted, but my article has to be deleted by a tribunal order.

The University of Perugia reacted to my and Sylvie Coyaud’s reporting consequently. In April 2021, Bassotti was punished promoted, and appointed as interim director for Gastroenterology and Hepatology; the university hospital’s Director General Marcello Giannico assured Bassotti “maximum support from the company’s management.” A relevant news piece from that time mentioned:

“The ‘Gastro’ affair has long been at the center of controversy, complaints and venom. […] These are three university members in particular: Gabrio Bassotti, Olivia Morelli and Monia Baldoni. Professor Stefano Fiorucci, who has always been a competitor of Bassotti, is not present in the list of names because, despite having an agreement with the company, he is based in Surgery and not Gastroenterology.”

In this regard, here is some interesting local reporting from May 2021 (Google-translated):

“The intersecting ‘war’ of Gastroenterology ends in court: the judge for the preliminary investigations of the court will have to decide on the dismissal requests made by the deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Petrazzini for both Professor Stefano Fiorucci and his colleague Gabrio Bassotti – both professors of gastroenterology – following two different investigations launched, for various reasons, for forgery, slander and defamation. But those accused have lodged opposition against the prosecutor’s decisions […]

On the one hand, the complaint by Bassotti […] who in June 2019 had reported alleged anomalies in the procedure for full professor of gastroenterology banned by the University of Perugia, given that – according to Bassotti – it had been profiled on the standards of a single potential competitor, Fiorucci in fact. However, the competition ended in nothing […]

In the complaint Bassotti reported the start of a simultaneous smear campaign against him in some blogs in which it was claimed that the professor had removed pieces of colons from patients without their consent and had bought scientific publications. According to Bassotti it was a defamatory campaign organized against him.

But in the same period Fiorucci […] also denounced his colleague-rival for defamation in the press.”

I am pretty sure I am not an agent of Fiorucci’s, but obviously the Perugia court thinks otherwise, hence the order to seize my article? Nobody has so far accused Bassotti of having “bought” his falsified papers, but here is a thought now indeed.

This litigious infighting between Bassotti and Fiorucci reminds me of this case in USA:

Another article from May 2021 mentioned that Bassotti’s appeal was rejected. Bassotti protested against the termination of an investigation against people who denied him a promotion, claiming that the application criteria were:

“”unreasonably stringent in particular with reference to the total number of citations and the hi-index parameters such as not to allow participation in the selection of Professor Bassotti and to ensure – it is written in the provision – the assignment to Professor Fiorucci, the only internal professor who had the indicated requirements”

Anyway, Stefano Fiorucci has his own PubPeer record of fudged science of almost 20 papers, one of them was retracted in 2006 because “RT-PCR blots published in panel C of Figure 8 of this paper were mistakenly reproduced from a previous publication.” And how could Fiorucci know it better – he trained and published dodgy papers with none other by the dishonest Italo-American Nobelist Louis Ignarro!

One representative Fiorucci paper, with Salvador Moncada (who failed to get that 1998 Nobel Prize for nitric oxide which Ignarro got):

This June 2022 article says Bassotti continued suing his university and its hospital, demanding the annulment of all “acts and provisions of the procedure for the assignment of the management role of the complex structure to the university management of Gastroenterology and Hepatology“. The position which Bassotti was given in April 2021. I am confused.

The important point is that the University of Perugia had all that evidence of fake science and absent ethics approvals, since 2019 already. And they made a decision to keep Bassotti while he has been suing them. Same for Villanacci in Brescia. No paper by this gang was retracted or even corrected, and this is why both Bassotti and Villanacci are still safe in their extremely rewarding jobs as clinical professors of medicine. The universities also fully support Bassotti’s lawsuit against Sylvie Coyaud and yours truly, and likely also pay his lawyers and legal fees.

---