Vatican City: The landmark fraud court of 10 people including cardinals began at the Vatican on Tuesday in what the expectations of officials would be a turning point in their financial credibility and showed that nothing was on the law.
The headliner at the trial was Cardinal Angelo Becciu, 73, before a senior official in the Vatican government, who became a high official of the Vatican to be tried for financial crime.
Pope Francis, who raised immunity becciai so he could be indicted, fired him from his last Vatican post in 2020 for alleged nepotism.
Becciu always maintains his innocence.
Another previously was a leading defendant at the trial, most of whom revolved around the purchase of a building in one of the smartest districts in London, was Swiss lawyer Rene Brelhart, was once the head of the Vatican Financial Intelligence Unit.
He denied all mistakes.
Main Outsiders are two Italian investment brokers, Gianluigi Torzi and Raffaele Mincione, both of which have denied mistakes.
Audience on Tuesday and Wednesday is expected to deal with the initial problem and then the trial is expected to be postponed until October, when two week hearings will be held.
It happened in the emergency courtroom at the Vatican Museum because of the restrictions of Covid and the number of defendants, lawyers and journalists made the normal Vatican courtroom too small.
“I think this trial marks a turning point that can produce greater credibility than the holy view in the financial territory,” said Father Juan Antonio Father Juan Antonio Guerrero, Chief Vatican Secretariat for the Economy (SPE).
“The fact that this trial takes place at all means that internal control works.
The accusation came from within the Vatican,” he told the Vatican website.
“Fraud, extortion” in 2014, the State Secretariat invested more than 200 million euros, most of the contributions of the faithful, in funds run by Mincione, securing around 45% of commercial and housing buildings in 60 Sloane Avenue in South Kensington Regency , The charges derived on July 3 said Mincione had tried to deceive the Vatican, which in 2018 tried to end the relationship.
It turned to Torzi to help buy the rest of the building, but then accused him of extortion.
At that time, Becciu was in the last year his position as Deputy Secretary of State for Public Affairs, a strong administrative position that handles hundreds of millions of Euros.
All said the State Secretariat drowned more than 350 million euros into investment, according to the Media Vatican, and suffered what George Pell’s cardinal, former Vatican treasurer, told Reuters last year was a “big loss”.
Becciu was charged with five accusations of embezzlement, two office abuse, and a count of inducing Patji witnesses.
He was also charged with alleged money and contracts to companies or charitable organizations controlled by his brothers on the original Island of Sardinia.
Other Sardinian, Cecilia Marogna, 40, a woman who worked for becciu, was charged with embezzlement.
He denied the mistake.
One of the initial hiccups might be the fact that Torzi, who lives in London, is the subject of the request of extradition by the Italian judge who wants to try it because of the alleged financial crime, including suppression of fraud and tax fraud, which is not related to the London property.
His lawyer, Ambra Giovene, told Reuters that he could not leave London before hearing the Italian extradition and so for now he had what he wanted to tell the Vatican court as a legitimate obstacle from the trial.
Last year, the Pope disarmed the secretariat of the control state of his fund and moved it to another Vatican Department, with additional supervision by SPE.