Vatican: No jurisdiction over journalists in leaks case

Vallejo, Chaouqui, and Maio were accused of working together to form “an organized criminal association” with the intention of “disclosing information and documents concerning the fundamental interests of the Holy See and the (Vatican City) State”.

Italian PR consultant Francesca Chaouqui was handed a 10-month suspended sentence by a Vatican court in the leaked document scandal known as Vatileaks II.

Two Italian journalists who wrote books detailing Vatican mismanagement face trial in a Vatican courtroom along with three people accused of leaking them the information in a case that has drawn scorn from media watchdogs.

A fifth defendant, Nicola Maio, an assistant to Vallejo, was acquitted.

The judges said they did not have the authority to try the Italian journalists.

The verdicts marked the end of a sometimes weird trial where the spotlight was often on the ambiguous relationship between Chaouqui and Vallejo, who were once members of a now-defunct papal reform commission investigating Vatican finances.

However, after violating the terms, he was moved back to the cells of the Vatican Gendarme, before eventually returning to the Collegio dei Penitenzieri.

Since Vallejo confessed to his crime in court, it’s possible that his original 18-month sentence could be cut in half, leaving him more or less free to go should his 8 months in prison be considered time-served.

She gave birth to a son three weeks ago.

He said he thought it probable Balda and Chaouqui would be pardoned by Francis and exiled from the tiny state.

In the end, the president of the four-judge tribunal, Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre, asserted the Vatican had no jurisdiction over the journalists and ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to show that any such criminal organization existed.

Fittipaldi and Nuzzi wrote blockbuster books previous year based on Vatican documents exposing the greed of bishops and cardinals angling for big apartments, the extraordinarily high costs of getting a saint made, and the loss to the Holy See of millions of euros in rental income because of undervalued real estate.

During closing arguments, her Vatican-appointed lawyer admitted her client wasn’t the nicest person in the world, but said that shouldn’t be a reason to convict her.

The Vatican made it a crime to disclose official documents in 2013 after a separate leaks scandal, which the media dubbed Vatileaks and which preceded the unexpected resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. He was also sentenced to 18 months, of which he served very little after Benedict forgave him. “It’s therefore a trial against the freedom of information”.

Mgr Vallejo and Ms Chaouqui were part of the reform commission.

Within the Vatican courts the case against the two journalists began to fall apart when Balda admitted he had not been directly threatened by the two journalists.

At a July 7 news briefing on the trial’s conclusion, Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi SJ said the process was necessary in order to demonstrate the will to combat “the incorrect manifestations and consequences of the tensions and polemics inside the Vatican”.