Health workers on trial in Turkey accused of private care scheme linked to 10 infant deaths

Doctors, nurses and an ambulance driver are among 47 people on trial accused of causing the deaths of 10 infants as part of an alleged scheme to defraud Turkey's social security system.

The defendants are accused of transferring babies to neonatal units of 19 private hospitals where the infants were allegedly kept for prolonged and sometimes unnecessary treatments. At least 10 newborns are alleged to have died in the past year due to neglect or malpractice in facilities that were unprepared to treat them.

Prosecutors at the trial, which opened in Istanbul on Monday, say the defendants also falsified reports to make the babies' condition appear more serious with the aim obtaining payments from the social security institution.

The main defendants have denied any wrongdoing, insisting they made the best possible decisions and face punishment for unavoidable...