Saturday, November 21, 2015

A request for indictment

The Tribunal of the State of Vatican City has taken steps to notify the defendants and their lawyers of the request for indictment presented by the Office of the Promotor of Justice at the conclusion of the preliminary proceedings for wrongful disclosure of information and confidential documents, and of the Decree of Indictment issued by the President of the Court on November 20 of this year.


Request for Trial

The following is a section of the request which was signed by the Promotor of Justice, Professor Gian Pietro Milano; and by the Associate Promotor of Justice, Professor Roberto Zannotti:

The Promotor of Justice
with regard to Articles 353, 355 and 359 cpp, asking the Eminent President of the Tribunal to issue, against the persons mentioned below, namely:

1.  Angel Lucio Vallejo Balda, born in Vallamediana de Iregua (Spain) on June 12, 1961;
2.  Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, born in Cosenza (Italy) on December 8, 1981;
3.  Nicola Maio, borin in Benevento (Italy) on March 2, 1978;
4.  Emiliano Fittipaldi, born in Naples (Italy) on November 13, 1974;
5.  Gianluigi Nuzzi, born in Milan (Italy) on June 3, 1969.

Decree of summons to trial for response by:

A.  Angel Lucio Vallejo Balda, Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui and Nicola Maio

the offence referred to in article 248, penal code (The latter as substituted by article 25 of Law number IX dated 11 July 2013) from within the Prefecture for Economic Affairs and COSEA were associated with each other to form one criminal organization, equipped with its own compostion and autonomous structure, whose promoters are to be found in Angel Lucio Vallejo Balda and Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, to commit more crimes of disclosure of information and documents concerning the fundamental interests of the Holy See and of the State;

B.  All the above-mentioned accused (from number 1 to 5)

the crime under Articles 63 and 116-2 of the penal code (The latter introduced by Law number IX dated 11 July 2013) for, in competition with each other, Vallejo Balda, as Secretary General of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs; Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui a member of COSEA; Nicola Maio as a collaborator of Vallejo Balda for issues pertaining to COSEA; Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi as journalists have illegally procured and subsequently revealed information and documents pertaining to the fundamental interests of the Holy See and the State; in particular, Vallejo Balda, Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui and Nicola Maio who procured such documents as part of their respective positions within the Prefecture for Economic Affairs and COSEA; while Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi solicited and bore pressure, especially upon Vallejo Balda, to obtain confidential documents and information, which they then used in part to prepare two books which were published in Italy in November 2015.

Crimes committed within Vatican City from March 2013 until November 5, 2015.

Journalist Emiliano Fittipaldi

Decree of trial

Following the request for indictment presented by the Promoter of Justice, the President of the Court of the Vatican City, Professor Giuseppe Dalla Torre, issued the decree establishing November 24, 2015, at 10.30am as the date and time for the first hearing of the trial against the accused Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, Francesca Immaculate Chaouqui, Nicola Maio, Emiliano Fittipaldi, Gianluigi Nuzzi, warning that should he not appear, he will be tried in absentia.

At the same time, the court established the following composition of the bench: Professor Giuseppe Dalla Torre, President; Professor Piero Antonio Bonnet, Judge; Professor Paolo Papanti-Pelletier, Judge; and Professor Venerando Marano, Deputy Judge.

The decree sets the date of November 28, 2015, at 12:30pm, as the time for the hearing of evidence presented by the defense, but reserves the right to quote the subsequent provision of the texts.

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