Swiss judicial authorities have
refused a request by Italian financier Raffaele Mincione, a
defendant in a Vatican trial over an allegedly inflated London
property deal on Sloane Avenue, to free up some 48 million euro
in funds deposited in Swiss banks and frozen a year ago, Holy
See sources said Friday.
Swiss media sources have put the amount even higher, at some 60
million euros.
The trial resumes on January 25.
On November 19 Msgr Alberto Perlasca was cleared of
corruption in the controversial property deal.
The former official of the Vatican's Secretariat of State did
not knowingly take part in the "numerous fraudulent operations
proved by the promotor of justice's office," said Vatican judge
Paolo Papanti Pelletier.
On October 6 a Vatican court dropped the case
against Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the highest-ranked Catholic
cleric ever to face charges of financial crimes.
Becciu, who in 2020 resigned as the Prefect of the
Congregation for the Causes of Saints, was accused of
embezzlement and abuse of office in relation to when he was the
Vatican's Substitute of the Secretariat of State.
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