Monday, March 14, 2016

Their day in court

This afternoon, the Director of the Holy See Press Centre, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ provided accredited journalists with the following information relative to the proceedings currently in progress in the Vatican regarding the publication of news and documents which had been under embargo:


Statement provided by Father Federico Lombardi, SJ
relating to the current proceedings about the publication
of embargoed news and documents

This afternoon, Monday, March 14 at 3:30pm, in the Tribunal Hall within the Vatican City State, the scheduled session of the hearing currently in progress relative to the publication of reserved news and documents began.

Present at this hearing, in addition to the Juridical College (Professors Giuseppe Della Torre, Piero Antonio Bonnet, Paolo Papanti-Pellettier and Venerando Marano) and the Promotors of Justice (Professors Gian Piero Milano and Roberto Zannotti), were the accused Lucio Ángel Vallejo Balda, Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, Nicola Maio and Emiliano Fittipaldi with their respective lawyers.  The accused Gianluigi Nuzzi was absent, but was represented by the defence lawyer Roberto Palombi who presented a legitimate impediment since Mister Nuzzi must appear in criminal court in Milan tomorrow on another matter.  The Court rejected Mister Nuzzi's request, since the notification and order for today's hearing had been published on March 7 and declared Mister Nuzzi in default while the proceedings of the trial are to continue.  The Court also received into public record, a letter from Mistress Chaouqui addressed to the Pope in which she asked for dispensation from the Pontifical Secret but did not authorize its publication in absence of any response from the recipient.

The session then continued for approximately three hours with the questioning of the accused Mister Vallejo Balda by the President, the Promotor of Justice and the defence's Advocate.

The hearing will continue tomorrow, Tuesday, beginning at 10:30am and continuing into the afternoon.

Additional session for the questioning of the accused parties if necessary will take place on Friday, March 18 in the afternoon; Monday, March 21 in the morning and on Tuesday, March 22.

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