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Diddi voluntarily kept himself "low".

If the Promotore di giustizia had wanted, he could have "shoot" many other numbers and figures for the looting carried out against the Secretariat of State.


di Maria Antonietta Calabrò




In total 73 years in prison and 387 million euros in confiscations. These are the total requests for a sentence to the Vatican Tribunal presided over by Giuseppe Pignatone for the ten defendants in the trial for the fraudulent purchase of the London Palace. After 67 hearings, a frightening picture emerged of the looting of the assets of the Secretariat of State which according to the prosecution took place between 2012 and 2019, which may have aroused surprise only for those who did not follow the process or for those who wrapped up in the fog of propaganda. Heavy demands? Not exactly. Because Diddi, we can say, deliberately kept himself "low". If he had wanted to "shoot" numbers and figures with a greater media effect, he would have had all the legal tools to do so.

Promoter Diddi, before reading the requests, instead specified that his office tried to calibrate the requests for conviction in order to comply with the criteria of the new fundamental law of the Vatican State, which entered into force on 7 June 2023, in article 21, which requires in the quantification of the sentence the re-establishment of justice and also the need to favor the rehabilitation of the offender. In particular, he applied the statutory minimum envisaged for crimes (the minimum and not the maximum penalty) and also calculated downwards the requests for confiscation. The decreasing of the "continuation" between crimes (also recently introduced) was also applied in favor of the defendants. Furthermore, general extenuating circumstances were granted to Enrico Crasso and to a lesser extent to Gianluigi Torzi for their contribution to the reconstruction of the facts. Two acquittals "for not having committed the crime" on minor leaders for Enrico Crasso and Tommaso Di Ruzza. Only for one defendant was the minimum edict envisaged by the penal code for the crimes ascribed to him not applied, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, identified as the real and proper "director" of the purchase operation of the Palace on Sloane Ave, for which among the conviction requests stand out that against him to 7 years and 3 months, with perpetual disqualification from public offices, and a request for confiscation for 14 million euros. Thirteen years and three months have been requested for the official of the Secretariat of State in charge of investments Fabrizio Tirabassi (confiscation of 99 million and 898 thousand euros, you read that correctly, over 99 million). Eleven years and 5 months for the financier based in London and residing in Switzerland Raffaele Mincione, with a mammoth confiscation request of 172 million. Nine years and 9 months in prison for Enrico Crasso, manager of the funds of the Secretariat of State for thirty years (confiscation of 109 million); for the former director general of the AIF, the Vatican anti-money laundering agency, Tommaso Di Ruzza four years and 3 months in prison, temporary ban from public office, and 15 million confiscation; for René Bruelhart, former president of the AIF, three years and 8 months in prison, temporary disqualification from holding public offices and 15 million for confiscation; for monsignor Mauro Carlino 5 year e 4 month of jail with perpetual disqualification from public offices and 15 million for confiscation; Cecilia Marogna, nicknamed "the cardinal's lady", four years and 8 months in prison, perpetual disqualification from public office and confiscation of 575 thousand euros; for the lawyer Nicola Squillace six years in prison, suspension from practicing the profession of lawyer and 1 million and 266 thousand euros in confiscation. Confiscations for another 14 million in total from the three companies involved in the Logic process HP Finance and Sogenel.

In relation to the confiscations, it should be added immediately that between Switzerland, Luxembourg, Italy and the United Kingdom itself, over one hundred million funds have already been seized from the various defendants. And that the confiscation requests have nothing to do with the compensation for patrimonial and non-patrimonial damages (including the enormous reputational damages) which will be due to the civil parties, i.e. the Apsa (Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See), the same Secretariat of State, the Vatican bank Ior, the anti-money laundering Asif. Cardinal Angelo Becciu's lawyers reaffirmed their client's innocence. The lawyer Cataldo Intrieri (defender of Tirabassi) declared that it is a political process. He returns to the Chamber on 27 September after the summer break. Last hearing December 6, then the sentence, before Christmas.

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