Pope Francis’ former adviser is jailed for greater than 5 years

A Vatican court docket has sentenced a once-powerful Italian cardinal to 5 years and 6 months in jail for embezzlement in a historic fraud trial targeted on an opaque London property deal.

Angelo Becciu, 75, a former advisor to Pope Francis who was as soon as thought-about a papal contender himself, is probably the most senior clergyman within the Catholic Church to face a Vatican legal court docket.

He and 9 different defendants, together with financiers, attorneys and ex-Vatican workers, had been on trial for a string of accusations, from fraud, embezzlement and cash laundering to extortion, corruption and abuse of workplace.

Court president Giuseppe Pignatone learn out the decision Saturday, with Becciu accused of embezzlement, abuse of workplace and witness tampering. He was acquitted of the latter two prices.

His lawyer, Fabio Viglione, mentioned they revered the sentence however would ‘definitely’ enchantment. He was additionally handed a high quality of 8,000 euros.

At the guts of the trial was the 350-million-euro buy of a luxurious property in London, as a part of an funding that started in 2014 and ended up costing the Vatican tens of tens of millions of euros till they bought the property in 2018. 

After the decision, Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi mentioned the result ‘confirmed we had been appropriate.’ 

The trial, which started in July 2021, has shone a light-weight on the Holy See’s murky funds, which Pope Francis has sought to wash up since taking the helm of the Catholic Church in March 2013 – making it a take a look at of his reforms.

Just weeks earlier than the trial, Francis gave the Vatican’s civilian courts the ability to attempt cardinals and bishops, the place beforehand they had been judged by a court docket presided over by cardinals.

Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi had requested seven years and three months in jail for Becciu, and between nearly 4 and 13 years for the others.

Becciu has all the time strongly protested his innocence, denouncing the accusations in opposition to him as ‘completely unfounded’ and insisting he by no means took a cent.

The panel of three lay judges met on Saturday morning, earlier than retiring forward of the decision on Saturday afternoon.

Court president Giuseppe Pignatone learn out a word of due to these concerned, acknowledging the ‘complexity’ of the case.

Since the trial opened, there have been greater than 80 hearings within the devoted room inside the Vatican Museums, the place a portrait of a smiling Pope Francis hangs on the wall.

The course of has been mired by procedural wrangling, with defence attorneys complaining a couple of lack of entry to key proof.

Becciu, a globe-trotting former Vatican diplomat, has been a close to fixed presence within the courtroom.

He was quantity two within the Secretariat of State, the Vatican division that works most carefully with the pope, from 2011 to 2018.

He was moved to steer the division that offers with the creation of saints, earlier than abruptly resigning in September 2020, after being knowledgeable of an investigation in opposition to him.

Initially, he instructed the trial, this was a couple of probe into 125,000 euros of Vatican cash he donated to a charity in his native Sardinia, which prosecutors declare benefitted his brother, who ran the organisation.

But he was later drawn into investigations into the acquisition and sale of the property on London’s Sloane Avenue – leading to losses that, in response to the Vatican, dipped into assets meant for charitable causes.

The onetime chief of workers within the Vatican secretariat of state, Becciu can also be linked to Sardinian lady Cecilia Marogna, who can also be on trial, whom he employed in 2016 as an exterior safety advisor. 

Prosecutors allege Marogna embezzled 575,000 euros in Vatican funds that Becciu had authorised for ransoms to free Catholic hostages.

Bank data from her Slovenian entrance firm present the Vatican wire transfers had been used as an alternative to pay payments at luxurious outlets and boutique lodges.

Marogna says the cash was reputable compensation and reimbursement for her intelligence-related bills.

When the trial opened, prosecutors painted an image of dangerous investments with little or no oversight and double-dealing by each exterior consultants and insiders.

Among the defendants are two brokers concerned within the London deal, Gianluigi Torzi and Raffaele Mincione, in addition to Enrico Crasso, a former Vatican funding supervisor, and former Vatican worker Fabrizio Tirabassi.

For its half, the Holy See views itself as ‘an offended celebration’ and has requested via Secretary of State Pietro Parolin for the court docket to ‘punish all crimes’.

Four Vatican entities are civil events. They have requested compensation from the defendants, together with 177 million euros for ethical and reputational harm.

Last yr it was revealed the Vatican may additionally face English courts for the primary time in its 2,000-year historical past as UK judges probed the property funding deal it made with British financier Mincione.

The property was bought by the Vatican on July 1, 2018, for £186 million, which represents a loss for them of round £140 million, insiders say.

But Mr Mincione denies the allegations and stands by the property valuation which he says was offered by impartial specialists. He additionally says the Vatican has offered no proof of his alleged wrongdoings or of its financial loss.

He needed to deliver civil motion within the UK in an effort to counter publicity and defend his fame, court docket paperwork present.

Vatican attorneys argued that any UK listening to may intervene with legal proceedings and ‘reputable acts of a overseas state’.

But Mr Mincione received a major victory within the Court of Appeal, which has agreed that English courts have the fitting to look at a property transaction and rule whether or not he and his firm, WRM, acted in good religion.

The Court of Appeal discovered that any English civil case wouldn’t intervene with the legal proceedings in Vatican City.