VATICAN CITY—The historic corruption trial of a cardinal of the Catholic Church—the former No. 2 in the Secretariat of State—resumed on Oct. 5 after a nearly three-month adjournment, with the refusal of the prosecution to provide to the defense audio and video evidence dominating the proceedings.
July Hearing
Hearings were postponed in July, after eight hours of initial arguments, by the three judges—Tribunal President Giuseppe Pignatone, Venerando Marano, and Carlo Bonzano—after lawyers for Becciu argued, successfully, that a number of serious legal procedures hadn’t been followed.In email correspondence with The Epoch Times on Oct. 5, Diddi appeared to take a slightly different position.
Procedural Violations
In a report by The Associated Press on the eve of the Oct. 5 proceedings, Becciu’s defense lawyer, Viglione, questioned how refusals to obey a judicial order and provide critical evidence from the main witness against his client, as ordered by the court, couldn’t nullify the entire proceedings.Viglione argued that in any other court, “recognizing international conventions guaranteeing fair trials or recourse to other European Courts focused on Human Rights,” so many procedural violations by prosecutors so early within the proceedings would be recognized as singularly detrimental to justice.
Supporting his concerns in a memo reportedly obtained by AP, international law expert Riccardo Sindoca wrote, addressing the Vatican Tribunal, “In a normal situation, in all countries having a judicial system that could be considered autonomous and impartial and structured in a way to safeguard a fair trial, the refusal would have been immediately sanctioned.”
“What explanation is there for when the Roman Pontiff intervened with his authority as absolute legislator four times during the investigation, which was already underway, in order to allow new procedures, and establish new rules unfavorable to Becciu? I wonder where else in the civilized world this would have been allowed without causing a scandal?
Hearings Resume
Tensions rose early on Oct. 5 as the prosecution defended its choice to deny full audio and video evidence to the defense. Conceding in early statements to the tribunal that mistakes were made, Diddi argued that despite such mistakes, protecting the privacy of his witness was essential to the integrity of his case.Pignatone then referenced earlier statements made by Diddi on the video and audio evidence and jokingly asked the prosecutor whether he was confused on whether he would follow the orders of the court, after having voluntarily provided the existence of the evidence in July’s hearings.
When Diddi argued that the prosecution provided a synopsis of the transcripts, which he stated provided the requested evidence to the defense while protecting the right to privacy of Perlasca, the defense issued immediate objections.
Viglione argued that all of the prosecution’s evidence should be dismissed due to their failure to provide the audio and video evidence that contained the statements of the main witness against their client, per the direction of the court.
When asked on Oct. 5 by The Epoch Times if the prosecution expected their refusal to provide the defense evidence would be accepted by the tribunal, Diddi said: “I really do not understand the controversy surrounding a completely legitimate request by the defense regarding the proceedings. I don’t know how to explain it further.
“The [prosecution’s] office simply asked the Court if, in fulfilling the order [to provide the video and audio evidence], it should make the material available to the full court or whether—for the protection of third parties—it should be deposited in the registry with the possibility for the defense teams to examine it without extracting a copy.”
“It seems to me a simple and legitimate request and if the court deems that everything must be deposited, it will be deposited,” he said.
When The Epoch Times pressed for a statement regarding the overall case made by the prosecution, and how it had been received so far by the court, Diddi said, “I cannot release such a statement, but only felt the need, very strongly, to clarify [these points] because I’ve noticed certain disinformation [in the press].”
After the defense issued their objections, the tribunal announced the hearing would be suspended for a day, with the tribunal judges issuing their decision on these points on the morning of Oct. 6.
Speaking exclusively with The Epoch Times, Becciu’s defense team provided a statement in response to the proceedings of Oct. 5.
“We are satisfied with today’s outcome: the Promoter of Justice [prosecution] just needed to recognize the legitimacy of our preliminary arguments, and by doing so, Mr. Diddi, himself, asked the Court to accept our objections, thus correcting a mistake.
“We did not, however, stop at these objections.