Vatican City: A Vatican computer technician will go on trial on Monday on charges of helping the pope’s former butler steal papers, in a case that could expose other whistle-blowers within the secretive Holy See.
Claudio Sciarpelletti’s trial follows the conviction of ex-butler Paolo Gabriele, who was sentenced to 18 months in jail last month after he admitted leaking papers alleging corruption and Machiavellian politics in the Vatican.
The 48-year-old technician was arrested on May 25 as the investigation into the leaks unfolded but was released the following day. He is accused of aiding and abetting Gabriele. It was a suspicious envelope addressed to Gabriele in Sciarpelletti’s desk that first drew investigators’ attention to the computer expert.
In it, they found photocopies of memos published by Italian investigative journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi in his book “His Holiness”, which collected together letters depicting infighting within a corrupt Vatican. The book touched on everything from fraud allegations to sex abuse scandals.
Sciarpelletti’s said Gabriele had given him the envelope because he wanted his opinion on the contents, but that he had never opened it and had forgotten it was there.
He later said it was someone else entirely that had given him the envelope — a person identified in court documents only by the letter “W” — which he was supposed to pass on to Gabriele, but which lay forgotten in his desk. He also talked about a second envelope, given to him by a certain “X”. Gabriele, now serving time, is expected to take the stand to testify to their close friendship. (AFP)