Vatican Puts Journalists on Trial Despite Criticism from Rights Groups

By Nick Squires
The Telegraph
November 24, 2015

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/12014470/Vatican-puts-journalists-on-trial-despite-criticism-from-rights-groups.html

Journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi (R) and Emiliano Fittipaldi speak to reporters outside the Vatican

Two journalists who went on trial in the Vatican on Tuesday on charges of publishing leaked Holy See documents denounced their trial as “absurd” and “Kafkaesque”.

Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi are among five people on trial, accused of leaking and publishing documents that revealed widespread waste and financial mismanagement within the Vatican. They could all face up to eight years in jail.

At the first hearing, which lasted barely more than an hour, Mr Fittipaldi read out a statement to the court.

"I am incredulous in finding myself here as a defendant in a country that is not mine," he said.

He said the trial contravened press freedoms that were enshrined in the Italian constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

Italian journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi, left, and Emiliano Fittipaldi, leave the Vatican City from the Perugino gate Photo: AP

The reporters were not allowed to appoint their own lawyers and were instead given lawyers approved by the Vatican. The trial is being presided over by four Vatican judges and there is no jury.

“I met my lawyer for the first time this morning, just before the hearing,” said Mr Nuzzi outside the courtroom. “I haven’t been allowed to read the charges against me. The trial is absurd, Kafkaesque. I appeared in court because I wanted to look the judges in the eye. I have no fear, I have nothing to hide and I have committed no crime.”

The Holy See’s determination to put them on trial has been criticised as “medieval” by journalists’ associations and critics of the Catholic Church.

There are fears that the group will be subjected to a quick trial so that the Vatican can draw a line under the scandal before the beginning of a “Year of Mercy” on Dec 8, a special calendar of events announced by Pope Francis.

Mr Nuzzi said he was not able to defend himself properly because the exact nature of the charges remained unclear. “When you reveal the privileges of a caste, that caste is not going to be very happy. But it is absurd to say any of the revelations endanger the security of the Vatican state,” he said.

The pair insisted they were simply doing their jobs as investigative journalists when they obtained the thousands of documents, allegedly leaked by three Vatican officials, including a high-ranking Spanish monsignor and Italian Francesca Chaouqui, a public relations expert.

Angel Lucio Vallejo Balda, the Spanish priest, allegedly decided to expose the wrongdoing out of frustration with the conduct of some members of the Curia, the Vatican’s governing body.

“I saw a lot of ugly things, there is a gulf between the Gospel and the behaviour of many of my brother priests,” he told La Repubblica newspaper. Vatican employee Nicola Maio, Balda's assistant, also went on trial.