ROME – Effectively resting the prosecution’s case, Promoter of Justice Alessandro Diddi yesterday requested stiff prison sentences, fines, confiscation of assets and other penalties for all ten defendants in the Vatican’s “trial of the century” for financial crimes, including an especially stern punishment recommended for Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu.
All in, Diddi requested a total of 73 years and one month of imprisonment for the ten defendants, mostly related to charges arising from a failed $400 million real estate deal in London which, according to Diddi, cost the Vatican somewhere between $155 million and $210 million. The prosecution claims those losses were the result of a criminal scheme to defraud the Vatican, while defendants have insisted they were simply acting on decisions fully authorized and approved by the appropriate officials, including, in some cases, Pope Francis himself.
