Vatican Secretary Not to Testify in Vati-leaks Scandal

By Hannah Tooley
Premier
May 18, 2016

https://www.premier.org.uk/News/World/Vatican-secretary-not-to-testify-in-Vati-leaks-scandal

The Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin will not be testifying during the Vati-leaks scandal that has embroiled the heart of Catholicism in recent months.

It had been that he may have testified on behalf of Francesca Chaouqui.

She was a Vatican public relations expert and has been charged with leaking confidential documents, a crime under Vatican law, and faces up to eight years behind bars.

She denies the charges.

The court ruled earlier in May that three witnesses - Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state; Cardinal Santos Abril Castello, archpriest of Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major; and Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, papal almoner - would not be testifying on behalf of Ms Chaouqui.

A Vatican spokesperson said Vatican City State's penal code says 'public officials' from having to testify.

Additionally a Spanish priest involved in the Vatican document leak scandal has admitted passing on classified documents.

Msgr Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda claimed in Vatican court trial that he was manipulated into handing over the documents.

He also said that Ms Chaouqui had told him she worked for Italian secret service.

Chaouqui, Balda and his secretary are on trial accused of leaking documents about Vatican finances and financial reform to two Italian journalists.

Journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi (pictured below) are accused of soliciting the documents and exercising pressure on the defendants.


The two books were released in 2015, based on the leaked documents.

Msgr Alfredo Abbondi, an office manager at the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, testified for nearly five hours earlier in the week.

He said that Ms Chaouqui suggested the offices were bugged, according to The Catholic Herald.

Her representation, lawyer Laura Sgro, has objected some testimony's given to date saying none of the evidence presented was included in the file given to the defendants' lawyers at the start of the trial.

The Vatican City State has now requested that all the documentation is made available to the prosecution and defense lawyers.

The trial continues.