ITALY
ANSA
(ANSA) – Cosenza, January 7 – Vatileaks 2 defendant Francesca Chaouqui said Thursday her co-defendant Msgr Lucio Vallejo Balda passed confidential Vatican financial documents on alleged financial mismanagement and overspending to two journalists who used them to write two books.
“It’s true, it was me who introduced the two journalists to Msgr Lucio Vallejo Balda, but there was never any agreement to pass them private papers,” she told a press conference at her home town of San Sosti in Calabria.
“It was Msgr Balda who handed over those documents to show that reform had not been put into practice,” she said.
Chaouqui and Balda – who claims she had a brief affair with him – are among five Vatileaks 2 defendants.
Vallejo Balda and PR expert Chaouqui were both members of the now-defunct COSEA commission set up to advise Pope Francis on the reform of the Holy See’s economic and administrative structure.
Investigative journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi and Vallejo Balda’s former assistant Nicola Maio are also on trial.
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