Vatican prosecutors on Thursday appeared to defy an appeals court order to turn over all evidence gathered in the Holy See’s sprawling financial trial, setting up a new clash in a case that has already seen a cardinal convicted and later granted a partial mistrial. The deadline imposed by the court — April 30 — passed without the prosecution depositing the documentation for the defense to inspect, as ordered.
In a three-page letter, prosecutors said they would allow the appeals court judges to consult the material, but they did not provide it to defense lawyers in the chancery. They argued the evidence was “irrelevant” to the trial and could harm Vatican interests, Associated Press reported.
The refusal comes after the appeals court on March 17 determined that the prosecution’s failure to share all evidence with the defense during the original two-year trial had undermined the fairness of the proceedings. The court declared a partial mistrial and ordered a retrial, telling prosecutors to deposit “all the acts and documents of the investigation in their integral version” by the deadline.
The case centers on a 350-million-euro ($410 million) investment by the Vatican Secretariat of State in a London property. In December 2023, a Vatican tribunal convicted Cardinal Angelo Becciu and eight other people of several financial charges, although the overarching theory of a grand scheme to defraud the Holy See was rejected.
Defense lawyers, who had argued from the trial’s start in July 2021 that their clients could not get a fair hearing with key evidence withheld, said the prosecution’s latest response amounted to contempt.
“In what country in the world can it be that the acts (of an investigation) are shown to the judge but not to the defense?” Luigi Panella, a lawyer for money manager Enrico Crasso, said in a telephone interview. “What concept of ‘fair trial’ can this type of statement represent?”
Attorneys Cataldo Intrieri and Massimo Bassi, who represent former Vatican official Fabrizio Tirabassi, said the prosecutors’ stance was unprecedented and urged the court to dismiss the trial entirely. Lawyers for Cardinal Becciu said the prosecution’s failure to comply with the order represented the very “selective discretion” the court had ruled out.
“The right to defense, the equality of the parties, and the adversarial process require full access to the documents,” said Fabio Viglione and Maria Concetta Marzo in a statement.
The next hearing in the appeals case is scheduled for June 22. It is not yet clear how the court will respond.
In a separate blow to the Vatican, Swiss federal prosecutors shelved an investigation initiated in 2020 after the Secretariat of State accused Crasso of embezzlement, fraud and disloyal administration. In a decision dated April 23, the Swiss federal prosecutor noted that the Vatican tribunal had already acquitted Crasso of the same charges and closed the Swiss case.
But the 31-page ruling included pointed criticism of the Vatican judicial system. The Swiss prosecutor, Annina Scherrer, said “with a certain surprise” that her requests to question key witnesses had been refused — after being sent to the Vatican Secretary of State for evaluation. That, she said, showed the Secretariat’s “influence” over a system that is supposed to be independent.