Cardinal Angelo Becciu was a former power broker for the Holy See, and the prosecution at a Vatican corruption trial connected to a failed London real estate deal requested a Vatican court on Wednesday to find him guilty and sentence him to seven years and three months in prison.
Becciu was one of the most influential people in the Vatican before Pope Francis sacked him over another matter. From 2011 until 2018, he served as the deputy secretary of state, and from 2018 to his termination in 2020, he served as the head of the Vatican division that researches potential saint candidates.
At the conclusion of his closing arguments in the trial, which started two years ago and involved 75-year-old Becciu, the highest-ranking Vatican official ever to be tried, prosecutor Alessandro Diddi requested a sentence. Becciu is one of the 10 defendants at the trial.
Diddi wanted the court to find all of the defendants guilty even though they have all maintained their innocence. Additionally, he asked for the seizure of assets worth millions of euros.
The complex purchase of a posh building by the Secretariat of State in London is the main focus of the trial. Last year, the Vatican sold the structure and suffered an estimated loss of 140 million euros. Several Vatican workers and two outside brokers, whom the Vatican accuses of extortion, are among the other defendants.
In 2020, the pope removed Becciu from another top administrative position due to allegations of nepotism. This charge was frequently brought up during the trial, and Becciu also refuted it.
Becciu said, “I have always worked for the good of the Church and I have spent my whole life for her. I am innocent not only because not only have I never stolen a cent, nor have I enriched myself or members of my family.”
The court’s ruling is anticipated at the end of the year, following a break for the summer and additional hearings with parties seeking damages, including the Vatican bank.
Becciu was seeking a combination of sentences for a number of different offences, including embezzlement, abuse of authority, and coercion to make a false statement.
Diddi additionally urged the court to seize Becciu’s assets worth 14 million euros, bar him from holding public office for the rest of his life, and impose a fine of more than 10,000 euros.
Raffaele Mincione, one of the brokers, and Gianluigi Torzi, the other, were each sought out for sentences of over eleven years by Diddi. He requested that the court seize 71 million euros of Mincione’s assets in addition to 172 million euros.
