Vatican: 'Interrogations Continuing' in Vatileaks Scandal

The Adnkronos
July 3, 2012

http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Religion/Vatican-Interrogations-continuing-in-Vatileaks-scandal_313467707499.html


Vatican City, 3 July (AKI) - A commission of cardinals probing the damaging leaks to media of confidential Vatican documents is still quizzing witnesses and may deliver its report by end-July, the Vatican's spokesman said Tuesday.

"The interrogations by the commission of cardinals are continuing...Cardinal [Julian] Herranz said in recent days that it has heard evidence from 28 people," Federico Lombardi told journalists.

Herranz heads the commission investigating the leaks, which also comprises the cardinals Jozef Tomko and Salvatore de Giorgi.

Lombardi said that the commission would "probably" deliver its report on the so-called 'Vatileaks' scandal - one of the gravest security breaches in recent Vatican history - by the end of July.

The leaked documents are a severe embarrassment as they lay bare corruption, intrigue and venomous power struggles in the Vatican.

So far, the only person to have been arrested over the leaked Vatican documents, which include private papal correspondence, is Pope Benedict XVI's former butler, Paolo Gabriele.

He is currently accused of aggravated theft, and if convicted could face from one to six years in prison

Gabriele was arrested on 25 May after documents were found in his apartment. He is being held in a four-by-four-metre secure room belonging to the Vatican gendarmerie (its tiny police force) but has reportedly been allowed out to attend mass at a Vatican chapel.

Italian media have cited unnamed sources as saying Gabriele was just one of a network of 'moles' allegedly orchestrated by one or more cardinal that leaked the documents.