The largest trial in the history of the Vatican ended on Saturday. For the first time in the history of the Catholic Church, the court sent a cardinal to prison.
This was reported by DW.
“Angelo Becciu, 75, has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for participating in a criminal conspiracy, fraud, abuse, providing false information, corruption, money laundering, and disclosure of classified documents,” the statement said.
One of the episodes of the case was violations and abuses in the purchase of a building in the center of London at a deliberately inflated price with donations. According to the auditors, the losses from this real estate investment amounted to £89 million (about €104 million).
At the time of the crime, Becciu was the third person in the Vatican, the undersecretary of state for general affairs. The trial of him and his nine accomplices lasted more than two years.
In recent years, Pope Francis has issued a series of decrees aimed at promoting financial transparency in the Vatican and preventing corruption. In 2019, he appointed Giuseppe Pinnatone, a former prosecutor in Rome known for fighting the Mafia, as head of the Vatican tribunal. In 2021, the pontiff issued a decree allowing cardinals to be tried by the Vatican court.
