Vatileaks journalists cleared as PR consultant and priest found guilty

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Vatileaks journalists cleared as PR consultant and priest found guilty

Rosie Scammell in Vatican City
Thursday 7 July 2016 19.10 BST

A Vatican court has convicted a priest and a PR executive over their roles in leaking secret documents to two journalists, ending a trial during which scandal and intrigue returned to haunt the seat of the Roman Catholic church.

Eight months after the Vatican launched its case against five defendants caught up in the “Vatileaks II” scandal, only one – the Spanish monsignor Angel Lucio Vallejo Balda – will be heading for a jail cell in the city state.

Announcing their verdict on Thursday, judges ordered the priest to serve 18 months in prison for leaking confidential documents to the reporters Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi, who wrote books exposing the inner workings of the Vatican.

Francesca Chaouqui, an Italian public relations consultant, was given a 10-month suspended sentence, and the court ruled it did not have jurisdiction over Fittipaldi and Nuzzi, who received the leaked documents on Italian rather than Vatican soil, and therefore could not convict them. The fifth defendant, Nicola Maio, who worked as Balda’s assistant, was acquitted.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/07/vatileaks-journalists-cleared-vatican-court-trial-catholic-church

[cleanhippie]

1. Now they have their scapegoat. Nothing to see here, move along.

[Lordquinton]

2. So they just had to walk 50 feet to avoid conviction

Nice way to beat a rap.