Vatileaks: Computer Technician condemned to Two Months of Prison with Reprieve
The former computer technician of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, Claudio Sciarpelletti, who had been accused of having misled investigators in the Vatileaks case, had been sentenced initially to four months of solitary confinement, which was reduced to two months because of his service as an employee and lack of previous criminal record. And by virtue of a law established in 1969 by Paul VI, any sentence of under three years’ imprisonment, for a crime of lesser seriousness, passed on an individual without any previous criminal record, is converted into a suspended sentence.
Claudio Sciarpelletti was penalized for having given conflicting statements about an envelope that Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s former valet, had delivered to him two and a half years before the Vatileaks story broke. This envelope contained photocopies of documents that were reprinted in one chapter of the book Sua Santità by the Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi that was published last spring, making the matter public. “In light of Gabriele’s sentence, which was considered lenient by all observers, the one passed on Sciarpelletti seems very severe,” remarked with some amazement Andrea Tornielli, a Vatican-watcher with the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa and the website Vatican Insider. Quoted by the French daily Le Parisien on November 12 of this year, he notes in particular that “there was nothing confidential in the documents found in the envelope delivered by Gabriele to Sciarpelletti.”
Shortly after the sentence was handed down, Claudio Sciarpelletti’s lawyer, Gianluca Benedetti, announced his plan to appeal, explaining the contradictions in his client’s testimony as the result of his confusion following his arrest. According to the journalists who were present, the two men were expecting an acquittal.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, cited by AFP on November 10, reiterated: “The inquiry into the Vatileaks affair as a whole is not closed.” Long and complex investigations will therefore have to be pursued along other lines. For now, the trials of Sciarpelletti and Gabriele, both of which were conducted rapidly, have not succeeded in shedding light on the matter fully. On his blog Linkiesta, which was quoted also by Le Parisien on November 12, the Vaticanist Iacopo Scaramuzzi stressed that the two trials were concluded “with many inconsistencies, some open questions and some obscure areas”. (Sources: apic/imedia/AFP/Le Parisien – DICI no. 265 dated November 23, 2012)
You can also read :
Former valet of Benedict XVI sentenced to 1.5 years in prison
Vatileaks: The trial begins on September 29
Vatileaks : The first report of the investigation soon to be delivered to the Pope
Vatileaks: the investigation continues
“Vatileaks”: the leak case at the Vatican
