Vatican City (AP) – The Vatican’s “Trial of the Century” had it all: partly Dan Brown Thriller, part …
Vatican City (AP) – The Vatican’s’ tasting of the century “Had it all: partly Dan Brown Thriller, Share John Grisham Legal Drama, partly Low-Brow Shakespeare Tragicomedy.
The financial whodunnit over the Bunged 350 million euros investment of the Holy chair in a London owned by his surreal cast of characters and exposure of Vatican vendettas, espionage and even papal ransom payments to Islamic militants.
The opening of the calls that opened on Monday can be just as explosive.
Why this matters: being able to uncover the hearings Even more unwanted revelations About the inner functioning of the Vatican, including details about the practical role of Pope Francis in the whole, filthy affair. That is because thousands of pages with private SMS reports among the players recently became public.
A summary of the first test
The original test Open in 2021 With its most important focus on the London Luxury Property. Officers of Justice claimed that brokers and Vatican Monsignors the holy chair of tens of millions of euros in reimbursements and committees fleecden to acquire the property, and then thrown the holy chair for 15 million euros ($ 16.5 million) to surrender control.
Raaklagers emerged: the original investigation produced two main tanges with Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a once powerful cardinal.
One of those tangent lines led to the extraordinary revelation that Francis had approved to pay up to 1 million euros Ransom to free a nun Islamic militants in Mali connected by al-Qaeda.
It was convicted: Becciu was convicted of blackout To send 100,000 euros in Vatican money to a charity that is checked by his brother and pays hundreds of thousands of euros in Vatican money to a self -proclaimed security analyst. He was sentenced to 5½ years in prison.
The tribunal convicted eight other defendants for embezzlement, abuse of official, fraud and other charges, but has acquitted them of many counts.
All the defendants maintained their innocence and appealed.
Possible professional problems Flashpoints
The SMS reports in the two years since the judgments were pronounced, thousands of pages with WhatsApp text and audio messages that have been exchanged between some players have become public and they throw new doubts about the credibility of the process And the Vatican Legal System. This private communication, published by Domani-Krant, suggesting doubtful behavior by the Vatican police, public prosecutors and the late Pope and an effort behind the scenes to focus on Becciu.
“If it suits us all agree, it’s the end,” warned a message. ” Because if we all knew it, the process is void and void and it is a conspiracy. “
Lawyers for Becciu and other defendants try to enter the chats as proof; At least one dedicated 80 pages of his professional movement to them. The lawyers say that the chats are their claims that their Customers did not get a fair test In an absolute monarchy where Francis repeatedly intervened in the investigation. They say that the chats prove the research that led to the process, wanted by Francis as a sign of his dedication to financial reform, was infected from the start.
What it could change: even if the chats are admitted, it is unclear what effect they can have on the professions, because the original judgments were based on other evidence. Vatican officers have rejected their relevance and said that the tribunal did not relate to the testimony of one of the people involved.
But the chats have already produced follow-on criminal complaints in Vatican and Italian courts and are likely to be used by the defense in further profession and legal fight. As soon as the Vatican statements become final, Italian, British and other courts is asked to implement them, also with possible prison sentences or financial damage that are taken by frozen bank accounts. Those foreign courts can weigh whether the Vatican trial was fair, and some defense lawyers say they are willing to take their claims that it was not at the European Court of Human Rights.
The holy chair insists that the process was fair and the defense had every opportunity to present his side.
The appeal of the public prosecutor, while Becciu and eight others were convicted of some financial crimes, largely threw the tribunal the umbrella theory of the public prosecutors away from a large plot to cheat the holy chair. Public Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi, who will also prosecute the case by appeal, has doubled On his original statement and the court asked to virtually reconsider a few of his acquitted.
In an SMS to the Associated Press, Diddi refused to comment on the chats.
The cast of characters
Cardinal Angelo Becciu The once powerful cardinal was considered a papal competition in a future conclave. Francis dismissed him in 2020Before he was charged, after being convinced, he was involved in financial misconduct from his time as number 3 in the State Secretariat.
Monsignor Alberto Perlasca Perlasca was Becciu’s deputy and led the Vatican Administrative Office that handled the London Investment. Because of that role, Perlasca was initially a main suspect. But after his first round of interrogation in April 2020, Perlasca fired his lawyer, changed his story and started working with officers of Justice.
Perlasca escaped the indictment and was ultimately mentioned as an injured party, which gave him the right to compensation. Only during the process did it show that Perlasca had been persuaded to change his story to switch on Becciu.
Francesca Chaouqui, perhaps none of the surreal turns of the process was as amazing as then Chaouqui, A controversial figure from the past of the Vaticanarose as the leading role in convincing Perlasca to change his testimony.
Chaouqui, a specialist in public relations, is known for its role in The “Vatileaks” scandal of 2015-2016When she was convicted by the same tribunal for conspiracy to leak confidential Vatican documents to journalists and received a suspended sentence of 10 months.
When Perlasca was questioned in the stands, it turned out that Chaouqui had dealt with an extensive conspiracy with a family friend of Perlasca to convince him to turn on Becciu.
Chaouqui refused the AP’s request for comments.
Main background: Chaouqui openly cherished a resentment against Becciu because she blamed him for her persecution of the Vatileaks. She saw the London investigation as an opportunity to expose what they said were Becciu’s lies and crimes, but she needed Perlasca to enter into Becciu to achieve it.
Genevieve Ciferri Ciferri is the family friend desperate to help Perlasca prevent persecution. The 3,225 pages of WhatsApp messages are the four years of correspondence, from 2020-2024, between her and Chaouqui. According to the chats, the two came up with a plan in which Chaouqui presented itself as a retired magistrate and legal advice on Perlasca passed on via Ciferri. Ciferri has transferred some of the messages to the prosecutors of Vatican after she became suspicious of Chaouqui, which she believed she had lied about her close relations with the researchers and Francis.
In a statement to AP, Ciferri said that the chats were not important for the professional process itself, because the convictions were not dependent on the testimony of Perlasca. She said that the chats were a “collateral” affair instead that was investigated separately.
“Keeping the importance of the chat messages makes no sense and is only a useless pretext, while the profession will be based on the actual crimes and the individual responsibilities of each person for each count,” Ciferri wrote.
The Vatican has not disputed the authenticity of the audio or commented on its content.
Pope Francis from the trial showed that Francis had intervened in the investigation by giving four secret decisions that greatly benefited the public prosecutors. The decrees, signed in 2019 and 2020, gave public prosecutors to investigate, including via uncontrolled taps and deviate from existing laws.
Francis’ Role larger than previously known
Defense lawyers said such secret intervention in a criminal investigation by a Absolute prince With the highest legislative, executive and judicial power confirmed that there was no separation of powers in the Vatican and that the defendants could not get a fair trial.
The tribunal rejected the importance of the decrees. The public prosecutor defended them before providing un -specific guarantees.
Francis’ Messages: But then came the WhatsApp reports, which showed that Francis played an even greater role. There are references to public prosecutors who talk to Francis about the research, claims from Chaouqui that she worked for him and detailed descriptions of interactions between Francis and Perlasca, who lived in the same Vatican hotel.
Francis even borrowed Perlasca -money after his Vatican bank accounts were frozen, according to the correspondence.
The messages contain photos of correspondence between Francis and Perlasca, including one in which Perlasca asks the Pope for forgiveness and help in getting a new job in the Vatican diplomatic service as soon as he decided to work with officers of justice. In another, the pope encouraged him on the eve of his second round of interrogation, when he finally turned on Becciu.
“Dear brother,” wrote Francis Perlasca August 19, 2020, a few days before the interrogation. ‘Thank you very much for your letter from yesterday. I’m close to you and I pray for you. Do the same for me. You can count on me. “
Perlasca is now public prosecutor in another Vatican Court.
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