Paolo Macchiarini, the former stem cell surgeon who was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison by a Swedish court for aggravated assault against patients he treated, is expected to begin his sentence sometime in the coming weeks. But he is likely to serve his sentence in Spain, where he currently lives, not in Sweden.
The saga surrounding Macchiarini, who was once considered a pioneer of regenerative medicine for implanting patients with synthetic windpipes seeded with their own stem cells, has been the topic of multiple documentaries and podcasts, and has even inspired an opera. In recent weeks he has gained new notoriety as the subject of both a Netflix documentary and the current season of the true crime drama Dr. Death, which stars Mandy Moore and Edgar Ramírez.
The saga surrounding Macchiarini, who was once considered a pioneer of regenerative medicine for implanting patients with synthetic windpipes seeded with their own stem cells, has been the topic of multiple documentaries and podcasts, and has even inspired an opera. In recent weeks he has gained new notoriety as the subject of both a Netflix documentary and the current season of the true crime drama Dr. Death, which stars Mandy Moore and Edgar Ramírez.
Macchiarini appealed the conviction to Sweden’s supreme court, submitting additional evidence about the condition of one of the patients before surgery. His defense team had repeatedly argued that the three patients were so severely ill that a transplant was the only way to save them, which justified the risky surgeries.
In a brief statement on 30 October, however, the high court said it would not hear the appeal. It said the case raised no significant legal issues that needed the court’s attention, and there was no evidence that the previous judgement was incorrect.
According to Swedish law, the high court’s ruling marked the start of a 90-day deadline for the Swedish Prison and Probation Service (SPPS) to determine when and where Macchiarini will report to prison. Sweden does not make those decisions public. However, according to EU rules, convicted people should serve their sentence in the country in which they are most likely to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society after completing their prison term, says Malin Pegers, a case manager in the foreign affairs section of SPPS.
Macchiarini has not lived in Sweden for many years and does not speak Swedish, so he is unlikely to serve his sentence there, observers say. In documents from his June trial, his address was listed as Barcelona, Spain, so Swedish authorities are likely to transfer his sentence to a prison there. However, because Macchiarini is an Italian citizen, the bureaucratic process is more complicated because Spanish authorities would have to agree to carry out the Swedish sentence.
Pegers declined to answer questions about specific cases, but she told ScienceInsider that SPPS has to ensure that confinement practices in the transfer country are consistent with the Swedish sentence. For example, she notes, in Sweden people are eligible for parole after they have served two-thirds of their sentence—just over 600 days in Macchiarini’s case. But some other EU countries allow people to apply for parole after just one-third of their sentence. Sweden usually insists a convicted person serves at least half of their sentence, Pegers says.
If Macchiarini does end up in Spain, there is some concern that he will try to persuade authorities to allow him to serve his sentence with an electronic monitor instead of in prison, says Thomas Fux, one of the whistleblowers who originally raised questions about Macchiarini’s treatment of his patients and the papers he published. Fux also testified at Macchiarini’s trial. He notes that Macchiarini’s listed address in Barcelona is a large home with a pool and views of the ocean. “If he would be allowed to serve his sentence sitting in his house with a view of the Mediterranean, that would be a huge provocation,” Fux says.