Suicide friend case shelved

(ANSA) - Milan, November 12 - A man saw the case against him for allegedly helping a friend commit assisted suicide in a Swiss clinic shelved on Monday.
    The man had only given his friend a lift to the Swiss border and his contribution to the assisted suicide was thus judged to be minimal and not liable for prosecution, a preliminary investigations judge ruled.
    The Como judge shelved the case on the request of the prosecutor instead of indicting the man, who has not been named, Il Giorno newspaper said.
    The friend committed suicide because of an intractable depression, sources said.
    The Constitutional Court recently gave parliament until next year to fill a legislative vacuum on euthanasia, putting off a ruling in the case of Radical Party member Marco Cappato who helped a blind and tetraplegic DJ, Dj Fabo, commit assisted suicide in Switzerland.