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Cardinal Becciu at the beginning of his trial for corruption in the Vatican: "My innocence will be proven"

2021-07-27T18:40:23.215Z


The Holy See holds the first hearing of the macroprocess for corruption in which a cardinal is accused, but postpones the process until next October


The Vatican attended this Tuesday morning the start of the trial that will mark its ability to punish crimes of economic corruption committed within it.

The prosecution of the Holy See accuses 10 employees, commissioners and Cardinal Angelo Becciu of having carried out a parallel management of the Vatican's finances for a decade and attributes to the prosecuted crimes of fraud, money laundering, embezzlement and corruption.

The novelty is not the crimes, but the attempt now to judge them.

The first hearing held, however, was limited to specifying technical and process details and the court postponed the trial until next October 5.

“I trust the court.

My innocence will be proven, ”Becciu said through a statement published by his lawyer.

More information

  • Bribes, nepotism and spies: the plot that shakes the Vatican

  • The Vatican puts a cardinal, Angelo Becciu, on trial for real estate crimes for the first time

The room of the Vatican Museums where the hearing was held - the entire trial will take place there for reasons of space - was packed with lawyers, judges and journalists. The bustle in the special classroom was suddenly interrupted when Cardinal Becciu entered at 9.17. The cardinal - former number two of the powerful Secretary of State and deprived of his privileges as a cardinal when Francisco learned of the accusations that weigh on him - sat in the last row and silence fell suddenly. He seemed calm, joked with some journalists and showed his ignorance in matters such as the one he will have to live in the next few months. "I had never been to a trial," he noted. He and his former secretary, Monsignor Mauro Carlino, were the only defendants who appeared at the hearing.The other eight alleged different reasons for not attending the first session of the hearing, which finally ended at 4:45 p.m.

Becciu, who wore a gray suit and wore a large golden cross on his chest, was so relaxed that he went to eat when the view continued and the defenses of some accused continued to intervene. Earlier, he assured that he trusts that the court will acquit him. Because until now, he pointed out, he has only been accused by the Vatican prosecutor's office without any type of contact with his lawyers or with respect for the presumption of innocence. In addition, his lawyer assured, "he serenely awaits the development of the process and the demonstration of the numerous evidence and indicated witnesses who will demonstrate his innocence with respect to all the accusations." “I have always been obedient to the Pope, who has entrusted me with many missions and has now wanted me to go through the process. And I have. I am serene, calm and with a clear conscience. I trust that my innocence will be recognized ”,the cardinal pointed out.

The main cause of the lawsuit is the sale of a property in London in 2015, which Becciu authorized, cost around 300 million euros and was carried out through a series of intermediaries who charged millionaire commissions and who reserved the power to block futures movements despite the fact that they had not contributed practically capital. The operation was carried out with the funds from the Óbolo de San Pedro, theoretically destined to pay for the charity works of the Holy See. A long investigation that began two years ago collected in some 29,000 pages - later synthesized in the 500 pages of the summary - allowed to determine that the activity of the accused supposedly supposed "considerable losses for finances [between 73 and 166 million]", according to Nunzio Gallantino, president of APSA,the organization that manages the Vatican buildings.

The prosecution has armed part of the case through the statements of Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, an alleged repentant, and Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, a kind of lobbyist who was already in the eye of the hurricane in the case known as

Vatileaks 2

after the Holy See would have commissioned him some reports on the economic structure. Then she was condemned for the leaks made during that process and she became one of those extravagant characters that always appear in Vatican plots trying to fish in a troubled river. Many are now surprised by his return to the Vatican legal scene and Becciu also assured that he will denounce his accusers for the "very serious and completely false statements they made before the prosecutor" during the investigations.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-07-27

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