(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 18 - Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the
highest-ranking Catholic cleric to be charged with financial
crimes, told journalists outside his trial Friday that he had
given funds to a youth social cooperative rather than, as
accused, to family members in Sardinia.
He said he was proud to have funded the SPES Cooperative, which
he said employs 60 young people including ex drug addicts,
former prisoners and youths with health problems.
He again denied sending money to relatives via the Ozieri branch
of the Catholic charity Caritas.
Finance police staged a series of searches on Tuesday to seize
evidence in relation to a money laundering probe by prosecutors
in the Sardinian city of Sassari regarding bodies linked to
friends and relatives of Cardinal Becciu that received funds
from the Vatican Bank and
Italian Bishops Conference CEI.
The searches took place in Rome and in the towns of Ozieri,
Pattada and Bono, in the province of Sassari.
Becciu is among 10 people on trial in the Vatican in relation to
the loss-making acquisition of a London property on Sloane
Avenue when he was the Substitute for General Affairs in the
Secretariat of State.
He resigned as head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
in 2020 when the scandal regarding the property deal broke.
(ANSA).