The trial at the Vatican Tribunal on the management of the Secretariat of State's funds and the sale of the London Palace will end next Saturday, December 16th.
The acceleration was announced this evening by President Giuseppe Pignatone, during hearing number 85, dedicated to the defense's rejoinders, indicating that date for the formulation of the sentence.
The trial with ten defendants, of which the best known is the Cardinal of Pattada Angelo Becciu, began in the Vatican hall, housed in the multipurpose hall of the Museums, almost two and a half years ago, on 27 July 2021.
The hearing has been convened for 11am on Saturday. At the beginning there will be a short reply from one of the lawyers, the lawyer Filippo Dinacci, then the Court will retire to chambers. The reading of the sentence is expected in the afternoon, around 4 or 5 pm.
Today the defense responded to what was said yesterday by the representatives of the prosecution and the civil parties, and all reiterated their requests for full acquittal for their clients. Lawyer Fabio Viglione, Becciu's defender, said he had not heard any real replies or arguments from the promoter of justice Alessandro Diddi, while "some elements were summarized as a caricature".
Viglione spoke of the "inadequacy of the opposing arguments". He contested that there had ever been a press campaign against the trial on Becciu's part, while he was the one who was attacked by the media "on a global level".
If the Perlasca memorial is not the cornerstone of the accusation, as Diddi said, it is however "the milestone from which the lines of accusation against Becciu started". Furthermore, Viglione asked, "how can you say that we had to ask the witnesses Ciferri or Chaouqui about the contents of the chats covered by the omission if it was the prosecutor himself who opposed the secrecy of the investigation?". The lawyer underlined that in all the documents, chats, messages and emails produced by the prosecution "no one ever talks about Cardinal Becciu", whereas it is he who is indicated by the prosecution as "the promoter, the director of the investments" .
As regards the "Sardinia affair", Viglione responded to the PG's point of having to deal with the former bishop of Ozieri, who died in 2020, Sergio Pintor, "who made a complaint against the Becciu family". "A complaint that doesn't exist," the lawyer replied instead. «It is devoid of any logic to refer to Bishop Pintor», he said again, «when the contributions sent by Cardinal Becciu to Caritas, through the Spes cooperative, are in the following years, with bishops Sebastiano Sanguinetti and Corrado Melis. We have documented this, including all the expenses incurred in managing a place where good is done. After all, we can't be interested in anything."
Becciu's other defender, Maria Concetta Marzo, on the case of Cecilia Marogna highlighted again that «if the cardinal really wanted to divert sums in favor of the woman, why did he do it when he was already no longer a substitute and therefore he necessarily had to resort to permits and authorizations?".
