Vatican court rejects some evidence
in Paolo Gabriele's trial, and
announces Mons. Gaenswein will testify
By Nicole Winfield
Left, the non=descript building that houses the Vatican City State's courts; right, the courtoom where Gabriele is being tried (photo taken during some other trial; no photography allowed during Gabriele's trial].
VATICAN CITY, Sept. 29 (AP) - The Pope's once-trusted butler
[VALET!]went on trial Saturday for allegedly stealing papal documents and passing them off to a journalist in the worst security breach of the Vatican's recent history — a case that embarrassed the Vatican and may shed some light on the discreet, internal workings of the papal household.
In its first hearing in the case, the three-judge tribunal threw out some evidence gathered during the investigation of butler Paolo Gabriele, who is charged with aggravated theft. It also decided to separate Gabriele's trial from that of his co-defendant, a computer expert charged with aiding and abetting the crime.
Gabriele is accused of taking the Pope's correspondences, photocopying the documents and handing them off to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, whose book "His Holiness: The secret papers of Pope Benedict XVI," was published to great fanfare in May.
Nuzzi has said his source, code-named "Maria" in the book, wanted to shed light on the secrets of the church that were damaging it. Taken as a whole, the documents seem aimed primarily at discrediting Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state and Benedict's longtime trusted deputy. Bertone, 77, a canon lawyer and soccer enthusiast, has frequently been criticized for perceived shortcomings in running the Vatican.
On Saturday, the court also announced that the Pope's personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, had been called as a witness, testimony that is sure to attract attention given that Gaenswein rarely speaks in public, much less about details of the intimate, papal family of which Gabriele formed part.
Other witnesses include one of the four consecrated women who take care of the Pope's apartment, a monsignor in the Vatican Secretariat of state, the No. 2 Swiss Guard commander and the head of the Vatican police force.
Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre set the next hearing for Tuesday, when Gabriele will be questioned. He said he thought the whole trial could be wrapped up in four more hearings.
Gabriele faces up to four years in prison if he is convicted. He has already confessed, saying he leaked the documents to shed light on what he called the "evil and corruption" in the Church, and asked to be pardoned by the Pope.
Gabriele, a 46-year-old father of three, appeared calm but tense during the 2 hour, 15 minute hearing, frequently crossing his hands or clasping them in his lap. He wore a light grey suit and tie.
He sat alone on a bench on one side of the intimate, austere courtroom following the proceedings impassively. During a break in the hearing, he chatted with his attorney, Cristiana Arru, and greeted journalists with a nod and a smile as he entered and exited.
Arru raised a series of objections at the start of the hearing, only some of which were accepted by the court. One concerned two jailhouse conversations Gabriele had with the head of the Vatican police force without his lawyers present. The judges declared the conversations were inadmissible. The content of the conversations isn't public.
Arru also sought access to the report of a commission of cardinals appointed by the Pope to investigate the leaks alongside Vatican magistrates. The court denied the request.
[The cardinals' work was canonical in nature and is not under the competence of the Vatican city-state tribunal that is trying Gabriele.]
Neither Gabriele's wife nor any of his three children attended the hearing. Space for the public was limited; eight of the 18 seats were taken up by the journalists who followed the proceedings and then briefed the rest of the Vatican press corps afterwards.
Security was relaxed, with the guards at the tribunal entrance mostly concerned that none of the press or public brought in any recording devices: They even checked pens to make sure they couldn't record, and sequestered cellphones into safe boxes. No television or still cameras were allowed, except for Vatican media which filmed the first moments at the start of the hearing.
Eight members of the Vatican gendarmerie who were called as witnesses were in the courtroom as well, but left during the break after the judges made clear they wouldn't be called to testify Saturday. Domenico Giani, the Pope's personal bodyguard
[head of the Pope's security, actually]] and the head of the Vatican police force, remained for the duration of the hearing.
Given the content of the leaks and the Vatican's
penchant for secrecy [It is not a 'penchant' - it is centuries-old practice, since much of what the Vatican does really does not concern the general public!], the fact that the trial was open to the public and media may have struck some as unusual.
In fact, such trials in the Vatican's civil and penal tribunal are routinely public. They just don't happen very often or attract much attention. The Vatican's ecclesial courts on the other hand, which handle marriage annulments, clerical sex abuse cases and other matters of Church law, remain firmly off-limits to outsiders.
[And rightly so!]
In some ways, the willingness of the Vatican to proceed with the trial at all is an indication of its efforts to show new transparency in its inner workings. Benedict could have pardoned Gabriele as soon as he was arrested or charged, precluding any trial from getting off the ground. Instead he allowed the trial to go ahead, evidence of the "courage" the Vatican is showing to be more transparent, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi has said.
He called such transparency unprecedented for the Vatican and likened it to the Holy See's recent decision to submit its financial institutions to outside scrutiny by the Council of Europe's Moneyval committee.
The Vatican Insider report by Giacomo Galeazzi has a few more details, but there is no English translation provided
vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/homepage/vaticano/dettaglio-articolo/articolo/vatileak...
The AP story is much more systematically presented and comprehensive.
Here is the Vatican Radio report:
Gabriele trial begins - the court tules
on various defense objections,
and hearing will resume Tueday
Sept. 29, 2012
The trial against the Pope's ex-valet Paolo Gabriele and Secretariat of State employee Claudio Sciarpelletti opened on Saturday, during which the Vatican Court ruled that the two accused will be tried separately on charges of aggravated theft of private documents and aiding and abetting a crime, respectively.
The trial is linked to the leaking of personal and private documents from the Pope's desk to the Italian media which first came to light last January.
The opening session was preceded by a consultation in Council Chambers among the three presiding judges that lasted over an hour, during which they discussed pre-trial requests presented by the defense.
46 year-old Gabriele was present at the session. Sciarpelletti was represented by his attorney. Nine of the thirteen witnesses called to testify were present. The Pope’s personal secretary Msgr. Georg Gänswein was among those absent because of prior official commitments. Eight journalists were also present to serve as pool reporters for the rest of the media.
The trial itself got underway in the small Vatican Courtroom, when President of the Vatican Tribunal, Giuseppe dalla Torre, read the list of charges. Attorneys for the defence then presented their clients' respective pleas.
Sciarpelletti attorney’s Gianluca Benedetti began by filing a “not guilty” plea for his client who was absent for unspecified "unexpected reasons”. Benedetti noted the lesser gravity of the charge against his client and presented a motion for a separate trial, which was granted by the Court. This will take place at a later unspecified date.
The judges then proceeded to throw out requests presented by Paolo Gabriele’s defense attorney Cristiana Arru. She had asked the Court to allow as evidence the results of a separate investigation by the Commission of Cardinals, convoked earlier this year by Pope Benedict XVI, to investigate the broader implications of the leaks.
The Court ruled that the results of the cardinals' investigation were reserved to Pope Benedict [and not connected to the judicial investigation in any way] and cannot be counted as evidence. Judge dalla Torre emphasized that trial evidence will be solely based on the results of the investigation carried out in Vatican City State by Vatican City State police and prosecutors.
The Court also rejected the pre-trial plea for a ruling on "Sub secreto pontificio" - in short evidence that is subject to Pontifical secret. The Court observed that this is not part of the criminal code of Vatican City State. [I must check this out because it is stated so murkily, and it does not correspond to what I have read about this particular point in other Italian media reports today.]
At the same time, the Court confirmed the legality of the installation of cameras near Gabriele’s house by Vatican police starting uJne 6 (he was arrested May 23) as having been duly authorized by the tribunal.
However, the Court upheld Arru’s request for the removal from the body of evidence of two interrogations of Paolo Gabriele which had been conducted by the head of the Vatican Police Domenico Giani, without the presence of a lawyer.
Other objections raised by Arru are pending, such as that over the 82 boxes of documents of different sizes that were seized in Gabriele’s house before his arrest, as well as objections relating to the way the search was carried out.
The trial has been adjourned until Tuesday, when Gabriele is due to take the stand. Should he be found guilty he could face up to a maximum four years in prison.
Salvatore Izzo of AGI adds the following relevant information:
Paolo Gabriele's trial is expected to end by Saturday, October 6. The Vatican tribunal that is trying him has called for four hearings next week starting Tusday, Presiding judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre said that should give enough time for all evidence to be presented and legal arguments to be heard, after which a sentence can be given.
About the issue reported imprecisely above by Vatican Radio, this is what Giazomo Galeazzi reported for La Stampa/Vatican Insider:
Gabriele's lawyer started the day by questioning the competence of the college of cardinals in investigating Gabriele's case, saying that violation of 'pontifical secrecy' was a canonical offense which does not fall within the jurisdiction of the Vatican City-State courts.
But Judge Dalla Torre pointed out that his court was only trying Gabriele for aggravated theft, which is covered by the law of Vatican City State, not by canonical law.
[Gabriele is liable for violation of pontifical secrecy because as a Vatican employee, he swore an oath of loyalty to the Pope.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/09/2012 20:26]