WHO official denies lying to Italy prosecutors over report

ROME (AP) — A top World Health Organization official has strongly denied making false statements to Italian prosecutors about a spiked U.N. report into Italy’s coronavirus response, doubling down on his assertions in court documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Dr. Ranieri Guerra, a WHO special adviser, outlined his position in a 40-page response, with a 495-page annex, to prosecutors who placed him under investigation last month for having allegedly made false statements to them when he was questioned Nov. 5.

The prosecutors’ claims create a picture “that is quite different from the reality of the facts and above all, are imprecise and don’t adhere to the reconstruction of events that Dr. Guerra provided,” said the response signed by Guerra’s Rome-based attorney, Roberto De Vita.

Prosecutors are investigating the huge COVID-19 death toll in the Lombardy province of Bergamo, which was hit hardest when Italy became the epicenter of the pandemic in Europe last year. Their investigation initially focused on whether delayed lockdowns in Bergamo contributed to the toll, but has expanded to include whether Italy’s overall preparedness going into the crisis played a role.

That second path of investigation was sparked by controversy over a WHO report into Italy’s response that was published by the U.N. health agency May 13, 2020 but taken down a day later from the WHO website and never republished.

The ensuing scandal revealed that Italy’s pandemic preparedness plan hadn’t been updated since 2006, and the report’s disappearance suggested that WHO had spiked it to spare the Italian government criticism and potential liability. WHO has said it was removed because it contained inaccuracies and was published prematurely.

Guerra, who was serving as a WHO liaison with the...