Vatican appeals court declares mistrial in the ‘trial of the century’ against a cardinal

Cardinal Angelo Becciu attends the consistory inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, on Aug. 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

ROME —The Vatican appeals tribunal declared a mistrial Tuesday in the Holy See’s big “trial of the century,” a stunning blow to both Pope Francis’ legacy and Vatican prosecutors who had put a cardinal and several other people on trial over alleged financial crimes.

In a 16-page ruling, the appeals court ruled that Francis and Vatican prosecutors both made procedural errors that nullified the original indictment against Cardinal Angelo Becciu and the others and required a new trial. The court set a June 22 as the date for the new trial to begin.

Defence lawyers said such a ruling was significant if not historic, since it amounted to a Vatican court declaring that an act of the pope had no effect.

The ruling was a win for the defence and a huge setback to Vatican prosecutors, who have been scrambling to salvage their case. The prosecution and 2023 convictions against Becciu and others had been held up by the Vatican and late pope as evidence of his willingness to crack down on financial misconduct in the Holy See.

A case that began with a London investment and grew

Becciu’s lawyers said the ruling showed they were right in arguing that the defence was put at an unfair disadvantage from the start.

“It shows that from the first moment, we were right to raise the violation of the right to defence and to request that the law be respected to have a fair trial,” Becciu’s lawyers Fabio Viglione and Maria Concetta Marzo said in a statement.

The case had as its main focus the Vatican’s investment of 350 million euros (US$413 million) in a London property. Prosecutors alleged brokers and Vatican monsignors fleeced the Holy See of tens of millions of euros in fees and commissions to acquire the property, and then extorted the Holy See for 15 million euros ($16.5 million) to cede control of it.

The original investigation spawned two main tangents involving Becciu, once a leading Vatican cardinal and future papal contender. He was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison. The tribunal convicted eight other defendants of embezzlement, abuse of office, fraud and other charges and imposed tens of millions of euros (dollars) in restitution to the Holy See.

All defendants maintained their innocence and appealed after a two-year trial that opened a pandora’s box of unwanted revelations about papal ransom payments to Islamic militants, Vatican vendettas, espionage and other dirty laundry of the Holy See.

During the initial trial, Becciu’s lawyers in particular had complained that prosecutors hadn’t turned over all the evidence to the defence, violating their right to a fair trial. Prosecutors had redacted some documents, withheld the cellphone records of a key prosecution witness and redacted texts among the players, arguing that such omissions were necessary to protect the secrecy of other investigations.

Defence lawyers also alleged that four secret decrees Francis signed giving prosecutors wide-ranging powers to investigate violated the defendants’ right to a fair trial. They only learned about the decrees just before the trial began, since the decrees were never published.

The appeals court sides with the defence

The appeals court agreed with the defence arguments.

In the ruling, the appeals court ruled that one of Francis’ decrees -- which allowed prosecutors to proceed without a preliminary judge overseeing their work -- amounted to a law that should have been published. The failure to publish it, or to at least let the suspects know about it, made it ineffective, the court ruled.

The court also decreed that Vatican prosecutors’ failure to turn over to the defence all their evidence nullified their original indictment.

The finding against Francis’ decree could have wide-ranging implications for any new trial, since it throws into question prosecutors’ actions derived from the powers Francis granted them. Chief among them was the June 2020 arrest of broker Gianluigi Torzi, who was held in the Vatican barracks for 10 days of questioning without charge or a judge’s warrant, and had his cellphones and laptop seized.

Defence lawyers were pleased by the ruling.

“The historic decision by the Court of Appeals--which, for the first time in Vatican history, ruled that a papal rescript was invalid and void due to failure to publish it--in our view results in the complete nullity of the entire investigation and trial,” attorneys Massimo Bassi and Cataldo Intrieri, who represent former Vatican official Fabrizio Tirabassi, said in a statement.

The tribunal, headed by Archbishop Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, ordered prosecutors to deposit all the documentation, “in their original form,” by April 30. It gave the defence until June 15 to prepare their motions before the June 22 start of the new trial.

The court stressed that it was not declaring the complete nullity of every act of the original trial, maintaining for example the status of the civil parties and the original acquittals. Defence lawyers said it remains to be seen how the appeals court decides what elements of the original trial can remain and what must be redone.

It was the second major blow to prosecutors since the appeals phase opened last year.

In January, the Vatican’s highest Court of Cassation upheld the lower court’s decision to throw out the prosecutor’s appeal of the first trial entirely because prosecutor Alessandro Diddi committed an embarrassing rookie procedural error.

On the same day as the Cassation ruling, Diddi also dropped months of objections and abruptly resigned from the case, rather than face the possibility that the Cassation court would order him removed.

Leo speaks about justice, unity and credibility

Tuesday’s decision was issued just days after Pope Leo XIV opened the Vatican’s judicial year. Leo, a canon lawyer, met Saturday with the judges and prosecutors who oversee the judicial apparatus of the Vatican City State, which follows its own peculiar legal code that is inspired by a century-old Italian code and the church’s in-house canon law.

In his remarks, Leo spoke of justice as a means of fostering unity in the church and credibility within an institution. His remarks were interpreted by some as a reference to how the Becciu trial had in some ways damaged the Holy See’s reputation because of its many anomalies.

“The observance of procedural safeguards, the impartiality of the judge, the effectiveness of the right of defence and the reasonable duration of proceedings are not merely technical instruments of the judicial process,” Leo said. “They constitute the conditions through which the exercise of the judicial function acquires particular authority and contributes to institutional stability.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

By Nicole Winfield