Overview
- Prosecutors in Milan have opened an international verification phase, sending formal requests through the Justice Ministry and Interpol to Uruguay and Spain to confirm adoption records and any investigations, and the chief prosecutor says the child exists and is gravely ill.
- The Maldonado court’s February 15, 2023 ruling declared the boy abandoned and granted full adoption to Nicole Minetti and Giuseppe Cipriani, noting he called them “mom and dad,” and court files describe later surgery in Boston that improved his condition.
- Uruguay’s child-welfare agency INAU initially questioned Minetti’s Italian conviction for aiding prostitution, but lawyers argued sex work is legal in Uruguay and a 2020 “urgent evaluation” process for disabled children allowed the couple to bypass the normal priority list.
- A Uruguayan couple say they cared for the boy at home part time, cleared suitability checks, and were later told by phone he would go to a foreign family, while former INAU leaders maintain the adoption followed the law and received judicial review.
- The presidential clemency for Minetti remains under review pending those foreign checks, and prosecutors are also assessing disputed side claims including a denied report of a meeting involving Justice Minister Carlo Nordio and questions about the missing biological mother and a lawyer who died in 2024.