Vatican judges in the so-called
Vatileaks 2 trial retired to chambers Thursday morning and
verdicts are expected this afternoon.
Prosecutors have asked the court to convict two former
members of the now-defunct COSEA financial commission, Msgr
Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda and PR expert Francesco Immacolata
Chaouqui, as well as their former aide Nicola Maio, and
journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi.
The prosecutors have asked for the acquittal of the other
journalist on trial, Emiliano Fittipaldi, for insufficient
evidence.
The three former Vatican officials are accused of handing
confidential information on alleged financial mismanagement and
unjustified personal spending to the journalists, who wrote two
expose'-style books.
Nuzzi is facing a one-year jail term.
Chaouqui, who was in court with her three-week-old son, is
facing a three-year nine-month sentence, which she has described
as "surreal".
Vallejo Balda is facing three years and one month in jail;
and Maio one year and nine months.
The case is called Vatileaks 2 because the first Vatileaks
trial led to the conviction, and then pardon, of the former
butler of ex-pope Benedict XVI, Paolo Gabriele.
photo: the four main defendants, excluding Maio
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