'Vatileaks II' trial opens; court says defense can call cardinals as witnesses
December 07, 2015
The “Vatileaks II” trial opened at the Vatican on December 7, with a hearing at which the three- judge panel weighed requests and objections from defense counsel, rejecting two key complaints but accepting many others.
After hearing brief oral arguments, the judges retired to their chambers for about an hour, emerging to announce their decisions and close the hearing shortly before noon. The Promoter of Justice, the Vatican prosecutor, supported several of the defense requests.
The court accepted defense requests for additional evidence regarding the charge of theft of confidential documents, and agreed to call expert witnesses—including Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State; Cardinal Santos Abril y Castillo, the archpriest of the Vatican basilica; and Archbishop Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner.
However, the judges rejected a complaint by the attorney for Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, who had argued that the Vatican court lacked jurisdiction because there was no proof that the confidential documents had been taken from Vatican—rather than Italian—territory. The court found that the documents had certainly been removed from the Vatican.
The judges also dismissed a request from Msgr. Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda for a psychiatric evaluation. The Promoter of Justice argued successfully that Vatican procedural rules allow for a “psychiatric” evaluation but not a “psychological” evaluation. The court did agree that expert evidence of Msgr. Balda’s psychological state could be admitted as documentary evidence.
At the request of defense attorneys, the court agreed to expert analysis of electronic evidence, including computer and cellphone messages. The court accepted defense requests for other documents pertaining to the alleged crimes.
Spokesman defends Vatican proceedings
In an indication of the Vatican’s sensitivity to complaints about the trial, Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, issued a lengthy statement defending the fairness of the proceedings.
Acknowledging complaints that have appeared in the secular media, Father Lombardi said that “many of these observations are inappropriate, or at times entirely unjustified.” He argued that the Vatican’s justice system allows for “all the procedural guarantees characteristic of the most advanced contemporary legal systems.” The Vatican spokesman explained that the tribunal is impartial, the defendants enjoy the presumption of innocence and the right to defense counsel, and an unfavorable verdict can be appealed.
Vatican Radio, meanwhile, interviewed Cesare Mirabelli, a former president of Italy’s constitutional court who is now counselor-general for the Vatican city-state, to explain the Vatican’s criminal procedures. Mirabelli took pains to explain that in the “Vatileaks II” case, the criminal charges revolve around the question of whether the defendants engaged in criminal behavior in order to obtain the confidential Vatican documents. The subsequent publication of those documents is immaterial to the charges, he said. “Freedom of the press is guaranteed,” he noted.
The December 7 hearing had originally been scheduled to take place on November 30, but had been postponed because one of the defendants, Chaouqui, had engaged a new lawyer.
Chaouqui—who has been the most outspoken of the five defendants, repeatedly insisting on her innocence—told reporters that she would not be satisfied if Pope Francis pardoned the defendants. (Speculation about a possible papal pardon has arisen as the Vatican prepares for the December 8 opening of the Year of Mercy.) “I am not expecting anything from the Pontiff and any such gesture is not what I want in any case,” Chaouqui said. She explained that “one doesn’t pardon the innocent; one acquits them.”
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Further information:
- New hearing in the trial for dissemination of reserved news and documents (VIS)
- Vatileaks II Trial: More evidence to be submitted (Vatican Radio)
- Vatican Court OKs Pope's No. 2 as Defense Witness (AP)
- Guaranteeing a fair trial: A Note from Fr Lombardi (Vatican Radio)
- The Vatican and Freedom of the Press - a judge speaks (Vatican Radio)
- Chaouqui says doesn't want pardon (ANSA)
- 'Vatileaks II' trial postponed for a week; rift reported between key defendants (CWN, 11/30)
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