A widow who was refused a copy of the magisterial inquiry into her husband’s death has been told she will be given access to it, two days after sharing her story with the media.

“I am relieved. I just hope they will give me access to the whole document and that I will get what I need,” Doriette Rizzo Naudi told Times of Malta shortly after receiving an email from the attorney general’s office informing her that her request was approved.

Doriette is still to collect “a true copy of the proces-verbal” (the magisterial inquiry findings) after paying a fee of €72.21. It is not clear if she will be given a full copy, the final conclusions or a redacted copy.

The attorney general’s approval comes two days after The Sunday Times of Malta published Doriette’s plea to get hold of a copy of the magisterial inquiry’s conclusions because “I want to know what happened to my husband”.

Her husband – Mario Rizzo Naudi, a renowned family doctor from Għaxaq and former PN candidate – allegedly died after falling off a bed in hospital, where he was recovering following a previous fall at home four months earlier.

He was 70 years old.

The family believe the circumstances surrounding his death were “full of mysteries”.

It started on March 25, a Saturday, when Doriette went out to run some errands with her elderly mother, who lives with her, in the morning. They returned home at around 1pm.

“I used the remote control, and the garage door came up. I was about to reverse in when I saw this horrific sight: a river of blood in the middle of the garage floor. His specs were on one side and his watch on the other and a ladder was lying on the ground,” she recalled.

He had been trying to get something from the garage rafters.

She walked through the garage and then into the living room and found him seated in an armchair, semi-conscious and incoherent.

“His body was limp like a rag doll. The armchair was unsightly. His clothes were coated in blood. Strangely, there was not a single drop of blood between the garage and the armchair,” she said.

Security cameras showed him walking out of his clinic, which is connected to the house, into the bathroom and then into the kitchen to make a sandwich.

He never finished making his sandwich but, for some reason, went to the garage.  He was taken to hospital where doctors explained he sustained two fractures to the lower left side of his head and had some internal bleeding.

Two days later, the police informed her that someone had filed a missing person report about him. They did not tell her more.

Thursday that week he was discharged and his sons took him back the following day. They stayed with him until just after midnight. He was fully conscious when they left.

“Two hours later, at 2.20am, my landline rang and I was told to hurry to go to hospital. They would not divulge more information on the phone,” she said.

Doriette rushed to the hospital.

'What I saw was inhuman'

“The first inkling I got was from a nursing aide who got me a glass of water and, as she rubbed my back, assuming I knew what had happened, told me he fell off the bed and they didn’t know how long he was on the floor and, by the time they found him, he was in dire straits.

"Then, I saw a stretcher and I ran to his side. It was the most horrific sight of my life. What I saw was inhuman,” she said.

Doriette and her sons waited as her husband was operated upon.  She was told her husband had cranial injuries and internal bleeding. The surgery was intended to address the bleeding and there was a hairline chance he may be saved with surgery.

But he died on the operating table after suffering a cardiac arrest. It was April 1, two days before they were to celebrate their 41st wedding anniversary.

The magisterial inquiry started.

The family hoped the inquiry would answer their questions that included: Who reported him missing and why? How does a man as limp as a ragdoll walk from the garage to the living room, up four stairs, unaided?

How come there was a pool of blood in the garage, his armchair was unsightly, his clothes coated and not a drop of blood in between? Was he unattended in the medical ward?

Through their lawyer, they learned that the inquiry has been concluded and asked for a copy of the conclusions. But the magistrate turned down their request.

Three weeks ago, they appealed to the attorney general to get a copy. They received approval on Tuesday – two days after sharing their story in the media.

A justice ministry spokesperson said: “The ministry has embarked on an exercise to analyse the existing legislative framework regulating magisterial enquiries to propose and introduce new rights for victims.”