Italian court drops warrant for key defendant in Vatican finance trial
February 02, 2022
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CWN Editor's Note: An Italian appeals court has voided an arrest warrant for Gianluigi Torzi, a key figure in the Vatican’s finance trial.
Torzi, a broker who arranged the details of a London real-estate deal in which the Vatican lost an estimated €100 million, is charged by Vatican prosecutors with extortion, embezzlement, and fraud. He was arrested at the Vatican last June, and held for several days, before being released on a €3 million bond. But he defaulted on the bond, left Italy, and has been living in London.
Because the Holy See does not have an extradition treaty with the United Kingdom, Torzi could be returned to Rome to face the Vatican tribunal only if the Italian government intervened to request his extradition. Last year an Italian court ruled that Vatican prosecutors had not presented enough evidence to justify an arrest warrant. The appeals-court decision apparently finalizes that judgment.
Torzi’s lawyers hailed the ruling as a victory for justice “concerning an arrest warrant that had no juridical or logical sense.” Although the case against Torzi can still proceed, his lawyers gave no reason to believe that the defendant would return to Italy to face judgment.
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