He Vatican City Court today condemned the cardinal Angelo Becciu to 5 and a half years in prison by a financial scandal when he was the powerful substitute for the Secretary of statealong with others eight accused found guilty of a huge hole in the accounts of the Holy See.
The president of the Vatican Court, Giuseppe Pignatonepronounced the sentence this Saturday afternoon after four hours of deliberation, with the cardinal absent from the room.
Becciu, a 75-year-old Italian, first cardinal prosecuted in a criminal trial in the Vaticanwas sentenced for embezzlement or embezzlement to 5 years and six months in prison, to pay a fine of 8,000 euros Yet the “perpetual” disqualification to hold any public office.
A large accounting hole
The verdict came after two and a half years of convoluted trial and 85 audiences and in the midst of notorious media expectation, especially due to Becciu’s former weight, which between 2011 and 2018 was the “number 3” vaticanthe powerful substitute for General Affairs of the Secretary of State.
The scandal broke out in 2019, when it emerged purchasing a building in London by the Secretary of State that led to a highly speculative operation by generate a hole of at least 139 million euros in the accounts of the Holy See.
Building, a former headquarters of Harrods galleries on the exclusive London street Sloane Avenuehad cost the Vatican some 350 million euros but then was sold for 186 million pounds (about 214 million euros).
However, that acquisition ended up being used to extort the Vatican and demonstrating the lack of transparency and irregularities in the accounts of the Holy See.
In addition, during the process other financial crimes allegedly committed by Becciu emerged, such as donations of 125,000 euros that the cardinal deposited in the account of an association linked to Ozieri’s Sardinian Caritaswhich at that time was presided over by one of his brothers.
Just like him payment of 575,000 euros to Cecilia Marognaa woman who was hired for presenting herself as an expert in diplomatic affairs and secret services and who supposedly helped the Holy See free the Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali.
Ready for resource
The promoter of justice or Vatican prosecutor, Alessandro Diddi, had demanded 7 years and 3 months in prison for the cardinal But, although the court finally reduced that sentence to 5 and a half years, it expressed its “satisfaction” because in these years it has not accused innocent people.
“This afternoon I know that a large part of our work has been well instructed,” he told the media after hearing the sentence.
The cardinal, for years one of the most influential men in the Roman Curiahas insisted through his lawyers in his innocence and advanced that he will appeal the sentence, since he perceives in the accusation Vatican “machinations” to defenestrate him.
Nine convictions and one acquittal
However, Becciu has not been the only one affected by this sentence on the eve of Christmas, but rather another eight of the ten defendants have been convictedall except the one who was his secretary, Mauro Carlinothe only one acquitted of the process.
The greatest shame, of 7 and a half years of prison, has relapsed into Fabrizio Tirabassiemployee of the Administrative Office of the Vatican Secretariat of State.
And the minor ones, fines of 1,750 euroshave been for the former leaders of the Vatican Financial Supervision and Information Authority, the Swiss president and lawyer Rene Brülhart and the former director Tommaso Di Ruzza.
The sentences hung especially on the financial brokers and mediators of the real estate operation, accused of profiting and defrauding the Holy See.
Enrico Crasso He was sentenced to 7 years in prison and a 10,000 euro fine; Raffaele Mincione to 5 and a half years; Nicola Squillace to one year and ten months in prison; and Gianluigi Torzi to 6 years and nine months, all of them with prohibition to hold public office.
While the businesswoman Cecilia Marogna, Becciu’s advisor and presented in Vatican circles as an expert in diplomacy, has also been sentenced to 3 years and nine months in prison, with a “temporary” ban from holding public office.
