ITALY
Telegraph (UK)
By Nick Squires, Rome 02 Dec 2015
A Vatican scandal over leaked documents that has uncovered a murky web of sex, espionage and computer hacking has taken a new twist, with the alleged involvement of the family of Silvio Berlusconi.
Three Vatican officials are on trial for allegedly leaking confidential papal documents to two Italian investigative journalists, revealing subterfuge, waste and mismanagement at the heart of the Holy See.
One of the Vatican employees, a public relations executive named Francesca Chaouqui, is now accused of threatening Paolo Berlusconi, Silvio Berlusconi’s brother.
Paolo, the younger brother of the former prime minister, is the editor of Il Giornale, a Right-wing daily newspaper.
Mrs Chaouqui allegedly ordered him to rein in one of his journalists, who had written unflattering articles about her after she was appointed to a commission, set up by Pope Francis, to review the Vatican’s tangled finances.
She allegedly warned Paolo Berlusconi that unless he acted, she would put pressure Vatican authorities to investigate secret accounts allegedly held by the Berlusconi family at the Vatican bank.
The Berlusconi brothers denied that they had ever held accounts at the Vatican bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion.
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