The Vatican’s chief prosecutor has appealed a court ruling that largely debunked his theory of a vast conspiracy to defraud the Holy See of millions of euros but found a cardinal guilty of embezzlement.
Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi filed his appeal earlier this week, days after a three-judge tribunal issued its verdict in a complicated financial trial that aired the Vatican’s dirty laundry and tested a unique legal system in an absolute monarchy in central Europe.
While the headlines from Saturday’s ruling focused on Cardinal Angelo Becciu’s 5-and-a-half-year sentence for embezzlement, the meat of the ruling made it clear that the judges rejected most of Diddi’s 487-page allegations.
Diddi has charged Becciu and nine others with dozens of charges of fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, extortion, bribery, abuse of office and witness tampering in connection with the Vatican’s botched investment in London real estate.
The high-profile Vatican fraud trial involving Cardinal Angelo Becciu and a murky London property deal concluded on Dec 12, 2023 after more than two years. AFP via Getty Images
He has demanded a prison sentence of up to 13 years each and 400 million euros in damages.
In the end, a tribunal presided over by Judge Giuseppe Pignatone acquitted one of the defendants entirely and convicted the others only of some of the charges they faced, while still ordering them to pay some 366 million euros in damages.
In the Vatican, as in Italy, the prosecutor can appeal the verdict at the same time as the defendant.
The Vatican’s chief prosecutor has appealed a court ruling that, despite finding a cardinal guilty of embezzlement, has largely debunked his theory of a vast conspiracy to defraud the Holy See of millions of euros. AP
Unlike Italy, both sides must file an appeal even before the trial judge issues his written motivation explaining the decision, although they can amend it, lawyers said.
In this case, Diddi filed a three-page motion on December 19 asking the Vatican’s appeals court to convict each defendant of the full set of charges he originally presented, even though the tribunal ruled that many of the alleged crimes simply didn’t happen.
The main focus of the hearing involved the Holy See’s 350 million euro investment in converting the former Harrods warehouse into luxury apartments.
Becciu, 75, a former adviser to Pope Francis, once considered a rival to the pope himself, has denied allegations that include embezzlement and abuse of office. RICCARDO ANTIMIANI/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Diddi alleged that Vatican brokers and monsignors fleeced the Holy See of tens of millions of euros in fees and commissions, and then extorted 15 million euros ($16.5 million) from the Holy See to hand over control of the property.
Becciu, the first cardinal indicted by the Vatican’s criminal tribunal, was convicted of embezzlement involving London-based investments and two tangential cases.
The broker who received a 15 million euro payment to hand over control of the building, Gianluigi Torzi, was convicted of extortion and other charges.
The Vatican’s longtime money manager, Enrico Crasso, was convicted of three of the original 21 charges he faced.
But he also plans to appeal, said his lawyer Luigi Panella.
“Contrary to the spread of propaganda, the prosecutor’s appeal motion reveals that the tribunal largely did not uphold the charging formula,” Panella said in an email.
Still, even for the three counts for which Crasso was convicted, the tribunal imposed more sentences than Diddi had originally asked for, “and this somewhat masks a lot of acquittals,” Panella said.
The ruling also did some legal gymnastics to understand the Vatican’s outdated criminal code, based on the 1889 Italian code and church canon law, requalifying or combining charges to fit with others.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu speaks to reporters during a press conference in Rome on Sept. 25. 2020 AP
In his appeal, Diddi objected to the tribunal’s refusal to allow him to use prison interrogations against London broker Torzi, because Torzi never presented himself later for questioning during the trial.
Torzi refused to return to the Vatican after he was jailed for 10 days without charge on a judge’s arrest warrant in 2020 during the investigation and was only released after he wrote a memo to prosecutors.
Diddi was able to detain him because of the sweeping powers granted to prosecutors in the Vatican’s legal system, as well as additional powers granted to him through four secret decrees signed by Pope Francis during the investigation that allow prosecutors to wiretap and detain suspects without a judge’s permission. warrant.
Pope Francis attends his annual address to the Roman Curia for the exchange of Christmas Greetings at the Apostolic Palace on Dec. 21, 2023 in Vatican City, Vatican. Getty Images
Defense lawyers have cited the decree as well as prosecutors’ ability to withhold evidence from discovery as evidence that their clients cannot receive a fair trial in Europe’s only absolute monarchy where Francis holds supreme legislative, executive and judicial power, and use it in the investigation. that.
In a post-judgment essay, defense lawyer Cataldo Intrieri denounced the “contradictions” of the Vatican’s legal system and the powers given to prosecutors, which he said resulted in investigations and trials that were “far from those adopted under the law. .”
“It means that a fair trial is not only a debate in court about evidence, which is certainly a fundamental element, but also ‘equality of arms’ in law to have access to evidence,” he wrote in the online daily Linkiesta. .
“The real problem, and we understand it immediately, is the abnormal concentration of power that the pope, the spiritual head of the Holy See and absolute ruler of the Vatican state, has given to the prosecutor’s office.”
Intriere defended Fabrizio Tirabassi, a former official at the Vatican’s secretariat of state who received the harshest sentence, 7 and a half years in prison for embezzlement, extortion and money laundering convictions. He denied wrongdoing; other defense lawyers also announced they would appeal.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
