Vatican Trial: The Defense Pleads Its Case

“The accusation, as we all know, is a hypothesis and, as such, it must be verified. And I must say that – in this specific case – the accusation is quite inconclusive in fact and in law,” argues René Brülhart’s lawyer.

The former president of AIF – which has since become the Financial Supervision and Information Authority (ASIF) – and his colleague Tommaso di Ruzza are accused of having facilitated the embezzlement of funds at the heart of the “trial of the century.”

On October 5, 2023, the defenders of the two accused especially recalled – and this on several occasions – that the work of the AIF was firstly “within the framework of the choices made by the superiors and that other people could have reported what was happening.”

It is a way of incriminating the Secretariat of State, at the helm of which was Cardinal Angelo Maria Becciu. It is very similar to the line of defense that Cecilia Marogna's lawyers chose during the 72nd hearing of the trial.

An almost fictional character who presents herself as an “expert in parallel diplomacy,” Cecilia Marogna is accused of having used, for personal purposes, the funds entrusted to her by Cardinal Becciu in order to help in the release of a Colombian religious sister kidnapped in Mali by jihadists in 2017.

“There is not a shred of evidence to convict our client,” her lawyers insisted on October 6, 2023, asking for her acquittal, while accusing her former mentor, Cardinal Becciu, in passing.

Lawyers Giuseppe Di Sera and Fiorino Ruggio also argued that the indictment against their client would be tainted by a formal defect, since Cecilia Marogna is accused of embezzlement. Now, under the law in force in the Vatican, only microstate officials can be prosecuted for such an offense, a status that the woman of Sardinian origin, as an external consultant, has never had.

Additionally, the defense noted that no one at the Vatican, including the Secretariat of State, ever requested the return of funds allegedly misused for illegitimate purposes, which should have occurred in cases of notorious misconduct.

“The pope could not not know, because in an absolute State like this, the Pope, like a monarch, knows everything,” finally launched the lawyers, at the end of a 35 minute pleading which finally kicked the ball back into the St. Martha’s House gardens.

The next hearing will be on the morning of October 19. It will be devoted to interventions by the defenders of Fabrizio Tirabassi, former official of the administrative office of the Secretariat of State, also involved in the allegedly fraudulent acquisition of the luxurious London building which has caused much controversy.