VATICAN CITY
The Tablet (UK)
07 December 2015 by Christopher Lamb in Rome
The Vatican offers fair trials including the presumption of innocence and the right to a defence, a spokesman for the Holy See said today.
Five people, including two journalists, are currently standing trial in the small city state for the leaking and dissemination of documents revealing mismanagement of the Holy See’s finances.
Today the court ruled that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s Secretary of State, will be called as a witness during the trial, which has been dubbed Vatileaks 2 after the first Vatileaks saga which saw Benedict XVI’s butler reveal private documents from inside the papal appartments.
The Vatican has come under international criticism for proceeding with a prosecution against journalists, particularly given they are residents of a different country: Italy.
Questions have also been raised about the city state’s justice system with the five defendants assigned their own Vatican lawyer for the proceedings.
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