Prosecutor asks prison terms for college medicine entry scam

(ANSA) Bari, October 13 - A prosecutor asked Monday for 65 university professors and students to receive prison terms from three years to six months on charges of rigging entrance exams to the medicine faculties of Bari and Ancona universities.
    Bari public prosecutor Ettore Cardinali demanded the heaviest prison terms of 3 years and a fine of 400 euros for gynaecologist Giuseppe Varcaccio and Prof. Maurizio Procaccini, director of the dental faculty in Ancona.
    The prosecutor asked the court to sentence a computer technician, Francesco Avellis,and Emanuele Valenziano, one of the candidates in the exams, to prison terms of 2 years and 4 months and 2 years and 6 months respectively for having set up a system sending answers by text message to the exams held Sept. 4 and 5, 2007.
    The prosecutor also asked sentences of 2 years and 4 months for as many as 51 defendants, students and parents, for fraud.
    A further 30 defendants had potential sentences of 4 months imprisonment converted to fines of 5,000 euros after they pleaded guilty to taking part in the mass cheating scam.
    The university of Bari asked for civil damages of nearly 1 million euro as compensation for damage to its image through the affair while the University of the Marche asked for 100,000 euros damages.