On May 13, defense lawyers representing Cardinal Becciu and businessmen Enrico Crasso and Raffaele Mincione filed a memorandum before the Vatican Court of Appeal challenging the conduct of the Vatican promoter of justice in the ongoing case concerning the Secretariat of State’s financial management.
According to the file viewed by Italian journalist Nico Spuntoni, the defense requested that the court declare the indictment invalid and revoke the order granting time for the parties to prepare evidence for a retrial ordered earlier this year.
“The promoter of justice refused to comply with the order issued” by the court to deposit the complete investigative records, the defense lawyers wrote in the memorandum cited by the Italian newspaper Il Giornale.
According to the order previously issued by the Vatican appeals court, prosecutors were required to deposit all records connected to the first-instance convictions of Becciu and the other defendants by April 30. According to the defense filing, prosecutors submitted material that “still contained numerous redactions and omissions.”
The lawyers argued that this did not satisfy the court’s instruction to provide the full documentation in the court registry.
The Vatican prosecution office reportedly maintained that only investigative acts and documents considered “relevant” to the case should be deposited, excluding material linked to matters deemed “unrelated to the facts under examination.”
Prosecutors also referred to the existence of information which, if disclosed, could allegedly endanger “the good and interest of the State [of Vatican City].”
Defense lawyers rejected those arguments in their memorandum. According to the file, the prosecutors had “illegitimately” assumed the authority to decide independently what material was pertinent to the judges’ assessment.
The memorandum also criticized a proposal by the Vatican prosecution office allowing the court to consult certain materials without including the defense teams in the process. The lawyers characterized the proposal as “a sort of reserved negotiation with the Court regarding what to deposit” and argued that such a procedure was unsupported by Vatican law and “contrary to legal norms.” The memorandum also speaks of “serious and unprecedented situation.”
Among the materials allegedly not deposited were files obtained from 31 electronic devices seized from Alberto Perlasca, a former Vatican official who became a key witness against Becciu during the original proceedings. The defense argued that the absence of those materials undermined the possibility of preparing adequately for a renewed trial.
For all these reasons, the defense maintained that the defects previously identified in the indictment had not been remedied, despite directions issued by Vatican judges in March 2026.
According to defense, the failure to file the complete acts prevents the reopening of the evidentiary phase ordered by the appellate judges under the presidency of Archbishop Alejandro Arellano Cedillo. If the court accepts that position, the new proceedings could potentially be suspended or even declared invalid.
The current dispute follows years of legal proceedings connected to the Vatican’s controversial London property investment in Sloane Avenue and broader allegations regarding the management of Secretariat of State funds.
In December 2023, the Vatican tribunal convicted Cardinal Becciu on financial charges and imposed a prison sentence, while also convicting several other defendants involved in the case. Becciu has consistently denied wrongdoing and appealed the judgment.
On March 17, 2026, the Vatican Court of Appeal, presided over by Arellano Cedillo, identified violations of procedural guarantees in the original trial against Becciu and eight other defendants, particularly concerning the effective exercise of the right to defense, and declared a “relative nullity” of proceedings.