MILAN (Reuters) – An Italian prosecutor has accused the World Health Organization (WHO) of blocking efforts to investigate allegations that Italy has failed to adequately prepare itself for the coronavirus pandemic.

Prosecutors in the northern city of Bergamo, the epicenter of the deadly COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, are also investigating allegations that WHO officials are helping Italy’s health ministry cover up suspected shortcomings.

“Until now we have only just encountered a rubber wall,” prosecutor Maria Cristina Rota told Reuters.

WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier denied that the UN agency was obstructing justice.

“It is WHO practice to always assist local authorities in such matters when requested and appropriate. WHO is currently reviewing requests for international judicial assistance from the prosecutor’s office in Bergamo, “he said.

The case has highlighted concerns about health management in Italy and raised questions about whether the WHO might be vulnerable to pressure from member states to suppress potentially damaging information.

Nearly 116,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Italy, Europe’s second-highest tally after Britain, with the country still recording hundreds of deaths every day.

Rota said the Geneva-based WHO had rejected the initial request for assistance and demanded that any inquiries go through formal diplomatic channels. This was done on March 8, but prosecutors have not heard back, he said.

Rota said WHO also failed to forward calls to its staff to provide witness statements to prosecutors. “Indeed, it encourages everyone not to appear,” he said.

As an international organization, WHO declares its staff to have diplomatic immunity. Lindmeier’s spokesman said prosecutors had not yet sent a request to waive immunity and did not provide the context in which the summons were issued.

FUCK REPORT BEGINS

Bergamo prosecutors last year opened an investigation into the government’s handling of the crisis and are reviewing allegations that the WHO conspired with Rome to suppress incriminating reports by researchers themselves of alleged failures in Italy’s health system.

The report was posted on the WHO website on May 13, 2020, but was withdrawn the following day. Judging by Reuters, it said Italy’s pandemic plans had not been updated since 2006 and said the local hospital response had been “improvised, chaotic and creative”.

Italy has repeatedly assured the WHO that it has updated the plan in the years after 2006 but appears not to have done so, legal sources said. The Italian health ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Francesco Zambon, lead author of the WHO report, resigned from the agency last month, telling RAI TV that his position had become unsustainable after he alleged that senior officials had pressured him to reduce criticism of Italy.

WHO’s Lindmeier said the report was published prematurely and that the permit process to release the report was not fully followed.

“The data and information contained in the report have not received final clearance and contain inaccuracies and inconsistencies,” he told Reuters.

“If the requested actions have been completed, the reports can be published normally, or reissued individually,” said Lindmeier.

Prosecutors said they were investigating whether the WHO withdrew the report at the request of Ranieri Guerra, special adviser at the agency. Guerra was director general of preventive health at the Italian health ministry between 2014 and 2017 and is therefore in charge of pandemic plans.

Guerra denied responsibility for the deletion of the report. He met Bergamo prosecutors in November and legal sources said last week that he was placed under investigation for allegedly lying during questioning.

He denied the allegations, saying in a statement to the media that he was “stunned and hurt by the situation. I don’t know what they were talking about”.