Becciu expresses 'bitterness' at 'mortified' defence

(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 26 - Cardinal Angelo Becciu, at the centre of a Vatican trial into alleged mismanagement of the Holy See's financial affairs, on Friday expressed his "bitterness" at the court's decision to keep covered by omissis all but six chat messages filed as evidence at the end of last year.
    "The defense cannot fully exercise the right of defense if it does not have all the material," said Becciu.
    In this way the defence is "mortified", he added.
    Becciu is on trial in relation to alleged graft and negligence in managing the Vatican's property portfolio including the purchase of a luxury apartment on London's Sloane Avenue.
    He is the highest ranking Vatican official to be tried for financial crimes.
    Speaking after the hearing Becciu told reporters his lawyers had also asked for "clarity" on claims by the former head of the Administrative Office of the Secretariat of State, Msgr. Alberto Perlasca, former Vatileaks defendant Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, one of Becciu's chief accusers, and Perlasca's friend Genoveffa Ciferri that they had "plotted" against him.
    "They said themselves that they plotted against me. It's a plot they made," said Becciu. Their plot even involved instrumentalizing the pope, he added.
    Sardinian-born Becciu, 74, had an audience with Francis last November after which he said he pope had encouraged him in the case, contradicting what he was last year heard on a wiretap as saying: Francis "wants me dead".
    "They used the Pope to carry out a vindictive plan against me. I do not understand why there is no clarity on this aspect," said Becciu. (ANSA).