The Vatican City Court has condemned Cardinal Angelo Becciu to five and a half years in prison for a financial scandal when he was the powerful substitute for the Secretary of State, along with eight other defendants found guilty of a huge hole in the accounts of the Holy See.

The president of the Vatican Court, Giuseppe Pignatonepronounced the sentence this Saturday after four hours of deliberation, with the cardinal absent from the room.

Becciu, a 75-year-old Italian, first cardinal prosecuted In a criminal trial in the Vatican, he has been sentenced for embezzlement to five years and six months in prison, in addition to paying a fine of 8,000 euros Yet the “perpetual” disqualification to hold any public office.

A large accounting hole

The verdict comes after two and a half years of convoluted trial and 85 audiences, in the middle of a notorious media expectation, especially due to Becciu’s former weight, which between 2011 and 2018 was the “number 3” vaticanthe powerful substitute for General Affairs of the Secretary of State.

The scandal broke out in 2019, when the purchasing a building in London by the Secretariat of State that led to a highly speculative operation by generating a hole of at least 139 million euros in the accounts of the Holy See. The building, a former headquarters of Harrods galleries on the exclusive London street of Sloane Avenue, had cost the Vatican 350 million euros but it was later sold for 186 million pounds (about 214 million euros).

However, that acquisition ended up being used to extort the Vatican, demonstrating the lack of transparency and irregularities in the accounts of the Holy See. Furthermore, during the process there emerged other financial crimes allegedly committed by Becciu as the donations of 125,000 euros that the cardinal entered the account of an association linked to Ozieri’s Sardinian Caritas, which at that time was presided over by one of his brothers.

Just like him payment of 575,000 euros to Cecilia Marogna, a woman who was hired for presenting herself as an expert in diplomatic affairs and secret services and who supposedly helped the Holy See free the Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali.

“Ready for appeal”

The promoter of justice or Vatican prosecutor, Alessandro Diddi, had demanded 7 years and 3 months in prison for the cardinal but, although the court finally reduced that sentence to 5 and a half years, he has expressed his “satisfaction” because in these years he has not accused innocent people. “This afternoon I know that much of our work has been well instructed,” he told the media after hearing the sentence.

The cardinal, for years one of the most influential men in the Roman Curia, has insisted through his lawyers on his innocence and has advanced that he will appeal the sentence, since he perceives in the accusation Vatican “machinations” to defenestrate him.

Nine convictions and one acquittal

However, Becciu has not been the only one affected by this sentence at the gates of Christmas, but others eight of the ten accused They have been convicted, all except the one who was his secretary, Mauro Carlino, the only one acquitted in the process.

The heaviest sentence, seven and a half years in prison, has fallen on Fabrizio Tirabassi, employee of the Administrative Office of the Vatican Secretariat of State. And the minor ones, fines of 1,750 euros, have been for the former leaders of the Vatican Financial Supervision and Information Authority, the Swiss president and lawyer. René Brülhart and former director Tommaso Di Ruzza.

The sentences hung especially on the financial brokers and mediators of the real estate operation, accused of profiting and defrauding the Holy See. Enrico Crasso was sentenced to 7 years in prison and a 10,000 euro fine; Raffaele Mincione to five and a half years; Nicola Squillace to one year and ten months in prison; and Gianluigi Torzi to six years and nine months, all of them with a ban on holding public office.

While the businesswoman Cecilia Marogna, Becciu’s advisor and presented in Vatican circles as an expert in diplomacy, has also been sentenced to three years and nine months in prison, with “temporary” prohibition to hold public office.