Vatican court orders embezzlement re-trial for cardinal

VATICAN CITY - A Vatican appeals court on Tuesday ordered the re-trial of a cardinal convicted of embezzlement but said a jail sentence ordered against him would remain pending the new proceedings.

The appeals court "orders new proceedings" in the case of Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was convicted of financial crimes in 2023, read a copy of the decision seen by AFP.

The court said it ordered the re-trial because of procedural errors in the original case against Becciu, a once-powerful former adviser to late pope Francis.

Becciu, an Italian who was once considered a papal contender, was sentenced in 2023 to five years and six months in jail over a disastrous Vatican investment in a luxury building in London.

He is not behind bars and would not be expected to serve any time until the appeals process has been exhausted.

Becciu had already been removed from his position in the Vatican administration and stripped of his rights as cardinal in 2020 when the scandal emerged.

He had previously been number two at the Vatican's influential Secretariat of State between 2011 and 2018.

Due to his conviction, he was not able to take part in the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV last year.

The original trial shone a light on the Holy See's murky finances, which Leo's predecessor Francis sought to clean up after taking the helm of the Catholic Church in 2013.

At the heart of the trial was the purchase of a building in London's upmarket Chelsea neighborhood, which resulted in losses that the Vatican claimed dipped into resources intended for charity.

Becciu was found guilty of embezzlement over the decision to invest $200 million in 2013-2014 into a fund run by financier Raffaele Mincione, which the judges said was hugely risky.

Some of this money went to buying part of the Sloane Avenue property in London -- a deal in which the Vatican lost between 140 million and 190 million euros ($160 million - $220 million), according to prosecutors. — Agence France-Presse