Paolo Sciarpelletti, the Secretariat of State’s computer technician who was tried for his involvement in the Vatican document leak scandal, has presented an appeal against the sentence handed down from the Vatican tribunal.
Sciarpelletti was sentenced to four months in prison but the court that granted extenuation reduced this period to two. The sentence was suspended for five years.
Sciarpelletti’s lawyer had stated that the defence would be appeal against the sentence because a suspension put his client at risk of being dismissed from his position.
Sources close to Sciarpelletti say he had rejected jobs offering him 10 thousand Euros a month just to serve the Holy Father.
Now, it’s back to the courtroom for a new chapter in the Vatileaks legal battle.
Claudio Sciarpelletti set up the Vatican’s cloud system so the delicate nature of the documents handled makes the computer technician’s trial a very “sensitive” event.
Unlike the Pope’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, Sciarpelletti has decided to fight. He presented his appeal Tuesday, at the end of the three day deadline established by the Vatican Code of Penal Procedure.
The reasons for the court’s decision will be published in the next few weeks.
The Vatican Promoter of Justice, Nicola Picardi sentenced Sciarpelletti on charged of “obstructing the search for the truth” regarding the theft and publication of confidential letters belonging to the Pope, obstructing the course of justice.
The judging panel and promoter of justice who are hearing the appeal are different to the first instance ones.
The prosecution will be represented by Professor Giovanni Giacobbe while the court of appeal is presided over by Mgr. José Serrano Ruiz. Sciarpelletti was put on trial for aiding and abetting Gabriele and giving two different versions of the facts when asked who had given him a folder with incriminating documents which ended up in Italian journalist and writer Gianluigi Nuzzi’s book “Sua Santità” (“His Holiness”).
It emerged that it was in fact Gabriele who had given him the folder and Sciarpelletti’s lawyer said it bore no relevance to the inquiries and was not evidence of a motive or of criminal intent.
The judging panel headed by Giuseppe Dalla Torre did not agree and sentenced him to four months in prison, reduced to two in the end because of his service to the Vatican and the absence of a criminal record.
The Vatican has certainly not turned taken the offences committed lightly and it is only lay people who have paid the price.
Although the Vatican Tribunal has been quite lenient with the sentences it has handed down, as is customary in the Holy See “in the name of His Holiness Benedict XVI gloriously reigning” and “having invoked the Most Holy Trinity”, the consequences are rather serious.
Gabriele, who has been sentenced to 18 months, a sentence no on would have gone to prison for in Italy, remains behind bars, awaiting a pardon the nature and timing of which is uncertain. What is more, His Holiness’s former butler will not be able tow work in the Holy See again, except possibly in organisations linked to it.
In as far as Sciarpelletti is concerned, if his sentence becomes final, he faces dismissal. Meanwhile, no formal inquiry has been launched into any of the prelates mentioned during the case.
A number of names were mentioned during the trial, some of which were Gabriele’s confidants and friends (for example, Giovanni Luzi, who received and burnt copies of documents Gabriele had given to Gianluigi Nuzzi and published his abovementioned book) and others acted as Sciarpelletti’s folder bearers (the name of Mgr. Piero Pennacchini, former Vatican Press Office director unexpectedly came up).
However, no legal procedures were begun against of these men. Other methods were used for them: Mgr. Paolo De Nicolò “retired” from his post as Regent of the Apostolic Household and Prefect and newly created cardinal, James Harvey, was “promoted” to the Basilica of St. Paul. Both these men are among Gabriele’s supporters.
But the end of the second trial did not mark the end of the case; it was just a phase. Inquiries carry on into other offences and positions that still need to be clarified.
One individual that stands out is Carlo Maria Polvani, head of the Secretariat of State’s Information and Documentation Office. Sciarpelletti dragged him into the Vatileaks case, claiming it was him who delivered the folder with documents about the Vatican Gendarmerie.
Polvani has insisted he is not a rebel and is fully faithful and devoted to the Catholic Church and the Holy See. It was his statements, in fact, that strengthened the evidence against Sciarpelletti.
First, his comment about Gabriele and Sciarpelletti being close friends and meeting up often, including in the office.
And then, the revelation of something Sciarpelletti had told him after he mentioned Polvani’s name during the course of the investigations: “You have to understand me; you have to forgive me. I did it for my children, for my family. I need to think about my children.”