Vatican takes legal action against Cardinal 1:24
(CNN) -
In what many are calling the Vatican's "trial of the century," a court of the Holy See on Tuesday opened a case against Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the pope's former chief of staff, and nine others accused of fraud and embezzlement, primarily for his roles in a controversial $ 400 million real estate deal in London.
Vatican prosecutors have called the deal an example of a "rotten predatory and lucrative system" that took shape under Becciu's leadership.
From the beginning, Becciu has asserted his innocence, as have most of the other defendants.
Giovanni Angelo Becciu in an image from 2018 (Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP via Getty Images)
Becciu is the first cardinal to be charged and tried before a Vatican criminal court, as well as the first cardinal whose case will be tried by non-clerics.
Pope Francis recently implemented a reform that strips cardinals of the privilege of being tried exclusively by other cardinals.
The case has sparked widespread backlash, in part because the funds used to finance the London settlement, some of which were allegedly scammed by the defendants, come from an annual collection around the world known as the "St. Peter's Alms." billed to ordinary Catholics as a way to support papal charities.
The first phase of the deal began in 2014, when Becciu was still the substitute, or "substitute," in the Vatican Secretariat of State, making him the pope's chief of staff.
Francis removed Becciu from that post in 2018, then fired him from his subsequent post at the Vatican and stripped him of his cardinal privileges.
Prosecutors filed the charges in a 500-page indictment viewed by CNN, backed by more than 20,000 pages of exhibits. In essence, the claim is that the purchase of a former warehouse belonging to the Harrod's department store chain in the posh London borough of Chelsea, originally slated to become luxury apartments for profit, was engineered by a network of Italian financiers. laity with the complicity of allies in the Secretary of State, including Becciu, with the purpose of extorting exaggerated fees in the transactions.
While Francis has earned praise for allowing the indictments and trial to proceed, Becciu and his allies have suggested they have made him a scapegoat for the failures of even more important figures in the system who remain close to Pope Francis, but who have not been processed.
The London scandal is one of several that have rocked the Vatican in recent months, including revelations that a Malta-based investment fund managing another portfolio of London properties on behalf of the pope used the proceeds to invest in the film production, including a biopic about Elton John and the latest installment in the "Men in Black" franchise.
Tuesday's hearing was expected to be largely procedural, and the trial is likely to unfold during the fall.
The hearing was held in a large meeting room belonging to the Vatican Museums rather than the usual courtroom of the Vatican Court to accommodate the unusually large number of defendants, lawyers and spectators.
Judgment
