'Rapist' fell asleep on day of arrest for whole year due to rare medical condition
23 December 2022, 00:03 | Updated: 23 December 2022, 00:48
An alleged child rapist who fell asleep for an entire year after his arrest was sent straight to jail after finally waking up in hospital.
Ahmad Ali, 28, was arrested in July 2021 at Fiumicino airport near Rome, over a sex attack on a minor, but shortly after he says his mind "went blank".
He spoke to profess his innocence, but he stopped eating and drinking and soon nodded off and would no longer respond to any noises.
He had to be fed through a drip, and for every stage of his criminal proceedings, he was wheeled in on a stretcher to a video conference room at Regina Coeli prison, in the Italian capital.
Ali, originally from Pakistan, wouldn't wake up or answer questions, but eventually judges ruled he could still appear in court despite being unconscious, as they suspected he may have been lying.
Read more: Russian who urged soldier husband to 'rape Ukrainian women' on international wanted list
But on two occasions medical experts told the court the defendant was suffering from an extremely rare condition known as 'simulation attributable to Ganser syndrome'.
It didn't look like any progress was going to be made, but suddenly on December 9, Ali woke up after being asleep for a whole year, and he was sent to prison straight away.
His lawyer, Donato Vertone told Repubblica: "Ahmed woke up and it seems to me a miracle. Credit to the Cardarelli doctors in Naples.
"Don't ask me how they did it, I only know that yesterday he was talking and walking but twenty days ago, due to the conditions in which I had seen him, I thought he would die."
Read more: Hospital evacuated after man shows up with WW1 shell stuck in his rectum
Some doubt the legitimacy of Ganser syndrome, which is sometimes referred to as "nonsense syndrome" or "prison psychosis" as it gives inmates a chance to win sympathy from judges and prosecutors.
Sufferers of the condition - a response to extreme stress - appear to mimic physical or mental illnesses, but then they can end up experiencing genuine symptoms.
People with Ganser have been known to experience hallucinations, confusion, amnesia and paralysis.
Susanna Marietti, national coordinator of Italian justice organisation Antigone, said she first met Ali while he was in the clinical centre of Regina Coeli prison.
To test out the alleged attacker's reactions, she says she bent over his face and "screamed at him, and he didn't move in the slightest", describing him as being in a "state of deep sleep".
"I spoke to the cellmate and he told me that he had never woken up, nor had he ever moved, neither during the day nor at night," she added.
Antigone referred the case to neuroscientists at University College London, who advised a psychologist, psychiatrist and physiotherapist work on Ali all together to help rehabilitate him, and he woke up soon after.
Ali's next hearing will be in January, where he will be expected to speak to the court himself for the first time.
