ITALY
The Local
A Vatican leaks scandal that was already rich in claims of sex, scheming and spying has widened to embroil Silvio Berlusconi and add allegations of blackmail and computer hacking to the mix.
Former prime minister Berlusconi denied late on Tuesday that he had had any contact with Francesca Chaouqui, an ex-PR consultant to the Vatican who is one of five people, including two journalists, on trial over the leaking of classified Holy See documents.
Berlusconi issued the denial after it emerged that his brother Paolo, a newspaper publisher, had been named in an Italian investigation into Chaouqui and her husband Corrado Lanino which is separate from but related to the Vatican case.
Prosecutors suspect that Chaouqui attempted to pressure Paolo Berlusconi into sacking the newspaper Il Giornale’s Vatican correspondent Fabio Marchesi Ragona by threatening to expose Silvio for supposedly holding a secret account at the Vatican bank.
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