A Vatican court on Saturday sentenced a once-powerful Italian cardinal to five years and six months in jail for financial crimes at the end of a historic trial.
Angelo Becciu, 75, a former adviser to Pope Francis who was once considered a papal contender himself, was the most senior clergyman in the Catholic Church to face a Vatican criminal court.
His lawyer, Fabio Viglione, said they respected the sentence — which included an 8,000-euro (US$8,727) fine — but would appeal, continuing to insist on Becciu’s innocence.
Photo: EPA-EFE / VATICAN MEDIA HANDOUT
The cardinal had been accused of embezzlement, abuse of office and witness tampering, one of 10 defendants in a trial focused on a disastrous investment by the Vatican in a luxury building in London.
They included financiers, lawyers and ex-Vatican employees accused of a range of financial crimes — all of whom were found guilty on Saturday, barring one, Becciu’s former secretary Mauro Carlino.
More than two-and-a-half years after the trial opened, Vatican City State Court President Giuseppe Pignatone read out sentences ranging from a fine to more than seven years in jail.
The court also ordered the confiscation from those convicted of 166 million euros, and ordered them to compensate the civil parties to the tune of more than 200 million euros.
The Holy See had declared itself “an offended party” and four Vatican entities were civil parties, claiming hundreds of millions of euros, including for moral and reputational damage.
The trial shone a light on the Holy See’s murky finances, which Pope Francis has sought to clean up since taking the helm of the Catholic Church in March 2013.
Just weeks before the first hearing, Francis gave the Vatican’s civilian courts the power to try cardinals and bishops, where previously they were judged by a court presided over by cardinals.
At the heart of the trial was the purchase of a building in London’s upmarket Chelsea neighborhood, which resulted in losses that the Vatican claimed dipped into resources intended for charity.
Becciu was found guilty of embezzlement over the decision to invest US$200 million in 2013-2014 into a fund run by financier Raffaele Mincione, which the judges said was hugely risky.
Some of this money went to buying part of the Sloane Avenue property — a deal in which the Vatican lost between 140 million and 190 million euros, prosecutors said.
Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi had requested seven years and three months in jail for Becciu, who had always insisted he never took a cent.
Mincione was on Saturday jailed for five-and-a-half years, while another broker involved in the London deal, Gianluigi Torzi, was jailed for six.
The trial involved more than 80 hearings in the dedicated room within the Vatican Museums, where a portrait of a smiling Pope Francis hangs on the wall.
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