Vatican leaks trial to end in July, key defendant gives birth

By Philip Pullella
Reuters
June 14, 2016

http://www.reuters.com/article/vatican-trial-idUSL8N1964EP

The trial of five people charged over the leak of sensitive Vatican documents was adjourned on Tuesday until early next month, when court officials said it is expected to end.

The case centres on the publication last year of two books based on leaked documents that depict a Vatican plagued by graft in which Pope Francis faces stiff resistance to his agenda.

Lawyers for a key defendant, Francesca Chaouqui, 35, told the court that she had given birth to a boy on Tuesday morning.

The birth was one of the reasons the trial was adjourned until July 4. It is expected to wind up on July 6 after three consecutive sessions, the court said.

Chaouqui, a public relations consultant, is on trial along with Spanish Monsignor Angel Lucio Vallejo Balda, his assistant Nicola Maio, and two Italian journalists, Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi.

Prosecutors say Nuzzi and Fittipaldi got the documents from Chaouqui, Vallejo Balda and Maio. The journalists are accused of exerting pressure on the three to get the documents.

The trial, which started last November, has put the spotlight on the ambiguous relationship between Chaouqui, who is married, and Vallejo Balda. Both served on a now-defunct commission advising Pope Francis on Vatican reforms.

He told the court in March that his relationship with Chaouqui had been "clearly, for me as a priest, compromising," and suggested that she had seduced him. She denies this.