Alleged Accomplice of Pope's Butler Goes on Trial

By Hanns-Jochen Kaffsack
Sun Herald
November 6, 2012

http://www.sunherald.com/2012/11/05/4284876/alleged-accomplice-of-popes-butler.html

VATICAN CITY — A Vatican court on Monday rejected a request from defense lawyers that the charges brought against a computer technician, accused of aiding and abetting Pope Benedict XVI's former butler in leaking confidential papal documents to the press, be dropped.

In an opening hearing largely devoted to procedural matters, Gianluca Benedetti, the lawyer of Claudio Sciarpelletti, argued that his client had no motive for committing the crime as he was not a personal friend of the butler, Paolo Gabriele, as the prosecution has charged.

Sciarpelletti has been accused of providing contradictory explanations as to how he came into possession of material that was eventually published in a chapter of a book, "Sua Santita" ("His Holiness"), which exposed infighting within the Vatican hierarchy.

The chapter in question, titled "Neapoleon at the Vatican," refers to alleged conflicts of interest involving the Vatican gendarmerie.

"What would the motive of the crime be? What reason did he have to obstruct the course of justice if this person was not his friend?" Benedetti told the court.

The lawyer noted that Sciarpelletti and Gabriele had had only infrequent contact and that the butler had been the only employee in the Apostolic Office never to have had his computer replaced by his client.

Trying to justify why Sciarpelletti had provided three different explanations to investigators as to how he had come into possession of sensitive material, the lawyer said the responses had been elicited by the "emotional states" of his client.

Informing reporters about the judges' decision, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said the trial would go ahead, with Sciarpelletti accused of "abetment" and of "obstructing the course of justice by providing different versions about documents contained in an envelope found in his possession."

Sciarpelletti, who was present in court, was expected to be questioned at the next hearing scheduled for Saturday. The second trial of the so-called Vatileaks scandal was taking place a month after the butler was convicted of theft. It took Vatican judges just seven days and four hearings to conclude Gabriele's trial and sentence him to 18 months in prison.

Sciarpelletti's role in the affair came to the attention of investigators following an anonymous note allegedly transmitted by the office of the Vatican's secretary of state. If convicted, the computer technician could face up to 12 months in prison.

One document Gabriele leaked revealed the concerns of a top cleric about an alleged plot to kill the pontiff. Others shed light on cronyism, corruption and opposition to the Vatican's second-highest official, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.