(Maurizio Brambatti/ANSA via AP Photo).
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Public relations expert Francesca Chaouqui, second from left, kisses her husband Corrado Lanino, as they arrive at the Vatican for her trial, Tuesday, July 5, 2016.
A Vatican court on Thursday cleared two Italian journalists who had been charged with printing leaked documents that claimed the Church was riddled with graft, ruling that the Vatican judiciary had no jurisdiction over them.
Public relations expert Francesca Chaouqui, right, back to camera, arrives with her newly born son Pietro, at the Vatican for her trial, Tuesday, July 5, 2016.
Nuzzi, who appeared in court holding a copy of the Italian Constitution and his book, Via Crucis, was facing a one-year jail term, requested by prosecutors.
In the end, the president of the four-judge tribunal, Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre, asserted the Vatican had no jurisdiction over the Italian journalists in the case and rule there wasn’t sufficient evidence to show that any such criminal organization existed. Public relations expert Francesca Chaouqui, center, arrives with her newly born son Pietro, at the Vatican for her trial, Monday, July 4, 2016. Two Italian journalists who wrote books…
Tuesday’s hearing was dedicated to the defense of Msgr Vallejo Balda whose lawyer presented a closing statement in which she pleaded for full acquittal for her client of all charges regarding the disclosure of confidential documents. Baby Pietro was in the tribunal Monday in a side room, but his cries could be heard in the chamber and Chaouqui dashed in and out to tend to him.
Many have speculated that those prosecuted will be given a papal pardon, but Chaouqui, who named her son Peter after St Peter, the first Pope, has said she will refuse such an offer. Two journalists, as well as three people affiliated with a papal reform commission, are accused of conspiring to publish confidential information.
Chaouqui, a Vatican monsignor and his secretary are accused by the Vatican of forming a criminal organization and leaking confidential documents.
“The fact that more evidence was found against Nuzzi than against me does not change one bit my negative judgment of the law that has been applied”, Fittipaldi told journalists. He denied that the journalists themselves threatened or pressured him, and pointed the blame on Chaouqui.
Three other people-a Spanish Vatican official, his assistant and an Italian communications consultant-have joined them in the dock since November. Prosecutor Roberto Zannotti argued that the journalists’ “availability and presence” created the “psychological impulse” that “reinforced the will of those who divulged the information to reveal their news”.
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The Vatican in 2013 criminalized the publication of “reserved” information after Nuzzi wrote a book based on Vatican documents passed to him by Pope Benedict XVI’s butler.
