Credibility of key prosecution witness questioned in Vatican monetary trial

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — The Vatican’s sprawling megatrial addressing alleged monetary mismanagement and corruption amongst its prime officers encountered a brand new hurdle Thursday (Dec. 1) because the credibility of a key prosecution witness, Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, was thrown into query by new info from an surprising supply.

On Wednesday, the Vatican’s chief prosecutor, Alessandro Diddi, instructed the Vatican tribunal overseeing the trial that he had obtained info that the monsignor had been manipulated into making statements within the case.

By the point Thursday’s courtroom session started, an Italian information outlet had revealed that the data had come from Genevieve Ciferri, a good friend of Perlasca’s, who had written to the prosecutor over the weekend. Ciferri claimed that Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, a former financial official on the Vatican, had prompted Perlasca in his pretrial statements to investigators.

Chaouqui is a well-known determine in Vatican authorized circles: In 2017, she was sentenced to a yr in jail by a Vatican courtroom for leaking state secrets and techniques in a scandal generally known as “Vatileaks.” (Her sentence was later suspended.)

Primarily based on Ciferri’s declare, Diddi requested the Vatican judges for time to research the brand new info and stated he’s contemplating expenses of perjury in opposition to Perlasca.

Attorneys for the trial’s 10 defendants, in the meantime, accused Chaouqui of “misdirection, fraud and threats” that will considerably influence their shoppers’ instances. They insisted that everything of Perlasca’s pretrial testimony, together with components redacted by prosecutors to guard different investigations, be launched.

The judges dominated that the trial would proceed, urging prosecutors to research Perlasca’s earlier testimony over the winter holidays. In addition they stated that Ciferri and Chaouqui will testify in courtroom subsequent yr.

Perlasca headed the executive workplace of the highly effective Secretariat of State in 2018, when funds earmarked for the pope’s charitable works had been invested in high-end London actual property, a deal that prosecutors declare misplaced the church greater than 20 million euros. Initially thought of a goal of the investigation into the acquisition, he turned a prosecution witness, supplying testimony notably damning for his former superior, Cardinal Angelo Becciu. 

Becciu, one of many 10 defendants now on trial, is charged with funneling Vatican funds to buddies and family. He has strongly denied the allegations.

When Perlasca testified final week, protection attorneys highlighted what they stated had been inconsistencies in his story, and the monsignor usually stated he couldn’t keep in mind lots of the occasions on the coronary heart of the trial. At a number of factors in the course of the cross-examination, Vatican choose Giuseppe Pignatone warned Perlasca that he risked perjuring himself. The monsignor struggled particularly to recollect particulars concerning his written testimony to Vatican prosecutors.

Ciferri instructed Vatican prosecutors in paperwork despatched to Diddi’s telephone that she instructed Perlasca what to jot down in his testimony, and that she in flip was following Chaouqui’s directions. Ciferri supplied ample proof of her claims within the type of textual content messages and audio recordings. She stated Perlasca didn’t know that Chaouqui was behind the directions.

Following the directions, Perlasca instructed the judges on Wednesday, he invited Becciu for dinner at a restaurant in Rome the place he secretly recorded the cardinal whereas asking him questions in regards to the trial case. Perlasca allegedly handed over the recording and transcript of the dialog to Vatican prosecutors.

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Perlasca testified that he had obtained 15 messages from Chaouqui over a number of months starting in August 2020, through which, he claimed, she tried to intimidate him by “claiming to be nicely acquainted with the Vatican prosecutors, the gendarmes and others.” 

“I forgive you Perlasca, however you owe me a favor,” Chaouqui wrote in a message to the monsignor, in line with his testimony. “Don’t block me or you’ll seem on the newspapers.”

Perlasca stated he stored Chaouqui “at arm’s size as a lot as potential.”

Diddi stated he had interrogated Perlasca with none data about his conversations with Chaouqui. Diddi pushed again in opposition to the information report, which prompt that the Vatican prosecutors had been behind Chaouqui’s messages to Perlasca, designed to maneuver the investigations ahead.

“I didn’t do it,” Diddi stated, “do no matter you need, you’ll be able to even seize my telephone in order for you.” He additionally stated that his workplace intends to guide an investigation into the matter “to keep away from some other makes an attempt at misdirection.”

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