Italy court annuls warrant for suspect in Vatican trial

ROME - Italy's Supreme Court has annulled an arrest warrant for a top suspect in a historic Vatican fraud trial, news reports said Wednesday, citing his lawyers.

Italian financier Gianluigi Torzi was arrested in London earlier this year on a warrant issued by Rome prosecutors, following Vatican and Italian investigations into an opaque London property deal.

The Supreme Court annulled a lower tribunal's ruling that upheld the warrant, according to a statement from his lawyers reported by Italian news agencies.

The lawyers said the ruling was a step towards proving Torzi's innocence.

Vatican authorities allege Torzi made an illegal profit of 15 million euros (now $17.4 million) while acting as a go-between in the Vatican's ruinous purchase of a building in London's upmarket Chelsea area.

The deal is now the subject of a historic fraud trial at the Vatican with ten defendants including Torzi and ex-cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was previously right-hand man to Pope Francis. Becciu also denies wrongdoing.  -- Agence France-Presse