The mammoth trial involving questionable financial deals lasted over two years: Cardinal Becciu has now been sentenced to five and a half years in prison and a fine for fraud. For the first time, a cardinal was convicted by the Vatican judiciary.
The Vatican City Criminal Court has sentenced Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu to five and a half years in prison and a fine of 8,000 euros for fraud and embezzlement. The 75-year-old is the first cardinal in church history to be convicted by the Vatican judiciary.
Becciu was at the center of the mammoth trial that had lasted more than two years. He was accused of being primarily responsible for loss-making multi-million dollar deals in the Vatican. The cardinal always emphasized his innocence. His lawyer has already announced an appeal.
Historical judgment
In addition to Becciu, other defendants were sentenced to prison terms and fines, and some defendants were acquitted. Among those convicted is a friend of the cardinal, to whom, according to the indictment, Becciu gave several hundred thousand euros from Vatican coffers. Several financial advisors who were involved in the Vatican’s loss-making investments were also convicted.
For the first time, a cardinal stood before the court as a defendant. Essentially, it was about the loss-making purchase of a luxury property in London by the Vatican Secretariat of State, where Becciu was head of department for several years. The deal went wrong – in the end there was a loss in the hundreds of millions.
Further deals and machinations also emerged in the process. The Vatican prosecutor Alessandro Diddi had demanded a prison sentence of seven years and three months and a high fine for Becciu.