It is not just the allegations of mistreatment
made by Paolo Gabriele against Vatican policemen (he claims he was
treated inhumanely during his first few weeks of detention in a Vatican
security cell) that have raised questions about the Vatican
Gendarmerie’s conduct.
During the second hearing of the Vatileaks trial on Tuesday, the Vatican Gendarmerie - the police force of the world’s smallest State - came under the spotlight on more than one occasion because of doubts regarding its investigation methods.
The Vatican Gendarmerie was founded in 1971 and is staffed by Italian citizens. It is led by Domenico Giani, a former Italian secret services agent. Giani is the man responsible for the investigations into and arrest of Paolo Gabriele and is at the centre of some confidential documents which Gabriele leaked to the press. Particularly that “defamatory libel” - as the Vatican Promoter of Justice, Nicola Picardi called it – which ended up in one of the chapters of Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi’s book “Sua Santità” (“His Holiness”).
According to journalists who were present in the courtroom, Giani, who was seated in the tiny audience following the hearing, appeared embarrassed on more than one occasion about the information revealed during the session. Not just when Gabriele stated he had been held in a constantly lit prison cell in which he could hardly stretch his arms out, for at least 15 days.
The accusations triggered a quick response from the Vatican. The first to speak was the Vatican’s spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, who stressed that investigating judge Piero Antonio Bonnet’s ruling that Paolo Gabriele was to stand trial, lists as many as 39 measures regarding his condition, adopted during Gabriele’s detention. The Gendarmerie also issued a comprehensive statement, emphasising that the cell in which the butler was held - even the one he was temporarily held in for the first few weeks, before a bigger one could be prepared, with numerous improvements that corresponded to the requirements of the Torture Convention which the Holy See adheres to – conformed to “the detention standards applicable to other Countries, in analogous circumstances.”
With regards to the issue raised about the cell light being kept on 24/7, the Gendarmerie explained that this was done in order “to prevent the accused from potentially self-harming himself and for security reasons as well.” Not only was Gabriele given a sleeping mask, but he himself asked for the light “to be kept on during the night because he found it comforting.”
But Gabriele’s lawyer, Cristiana Arru, was insistent in the questions she addressed to three other Vatican policemen: Giuseppe Pesce, Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti and Costanzo Alessandrini. It emerged that the Vatican police conducted the search of Gabriele’s house without gloves and thus risked contaminating the evidence.
Gauzzi Broccoletti and Alessandrini, two of the agents who took part in the search which led to the seizure of 82 boxfuls of documents from the former papal butler’s apartment, gave slightly different versions of the finding of the mysterious (possibly) golden nugget, which was treated as proof against Gabriele: No one gave a clear answer as to where exactly the nugget was found inside the house.
Last Saturday, the President of the Vatican Tribunal, Giuseppe dalla Torre, excluded two interrogation sessions conducted by Giani in the absence of lawyers from the case. And now the trial continues. Four more Vatican policemen were interrogated during today’s hearing: Luca Cintia, Stefano De Santis, Silvano Carli and Luca Bassetti.