VATICAN CITY
Irish Times
Paddy Agnew in Rome
The Vatileaks 2 trial in a Vatican City court took a bizarre turn yesterday when Italian media reported one of the chief defendants, Spanish Msgr Lucio Ángel Vallejo Balda, had given false medical documents about Pope Francis to the Chinese secret service in Dubai in 2014.
During a raid on Msgr Vallejo’s apartment last autumn, Vatican police discovered emails and other documents which showed the monsignor had travelled to Dubai and allegedly gave a confidential medical report on the pope to Chinese agents
However, the document handed over to the Chinese instead contained detailed information on the health of Msgr Vallejo’s 82-year-old mother. Msgr Vallejo allegedly removed his mother’s name from the medical files, replacing it with that of the pope.
Retired policeman and former Italian secret service operative, Giuseppe Di Donno has confirmed he accompanied Msgr Vallejo during his visit to Dubai. Mr Di Donno , who now works for a private “security and intelligence” company called “G-Risk”, was, however, unable to confirm that the senior Vatican official met with Chinese agents.
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