Vatican, Promoter of Justice: “Becciu also under investigation for criminal association”
The cardinal Angelo Becciu, accused of the financial scandal linked to the sale of the London building on Sloane Avenue, is also under investigation for criminal conspiracy. The Promoter of Justice of the Vatican Alessandro Diddi made it known during the 37th hearing before the Tribunal in the context of the trial on the financial scandal, which recorded new twists and turns. “There is a hypothesis of criminal association that starts from the Vatican – Diddi explained in the Chamber -. It is a parallel trend to the current process”. As for who is involved in this new vein, Diddi said “definitely Cardinal Becciu”, without specifying the other defendants.
All of this can be linked to a series of chat conversations seized by the Gdf of Oristano, defined as “particularly relevant” by Diddi, featuring Becciu, Maria Luisa Zambrano, a family friend, and the brother of Cardinal Antonino Becciu, at the head of the Spes Cooperative.
As for the account destined for Spes, Diddi reported that the investigation by the Gdf “resulted in 927 falsified delivery notes for the transport of bread” and which, again according to Diddi, would have served “to justify the money paid to Spes Cooperative”.
The Gdf, Diddi always reported, “went parish to parish to verify and none recognized their signatures on the transport documentation. There are traces of heavy interference by the Roman Curia on the diocese of Ozieri”, added Diddi to which it appears that mgr. Sergio Pintor, then bishop of Ozieri, “was not aware of the so-called ‘promiscuous account’ through which the money of the Holy See also passed”.
Cardinal Becciu records the phone call with Pope Francis without his knowledge
The Cardinal Becciu recorded a phone call with Pope Francis, without his knowledge, on July 24, 2021. The recording was traced by the Gdf, as part of an investigation by the Sassari prosecutor’s office into Caritas in Ozieri, on two phones and a tablet belonging to one of the suspects, Maria Luisa Zambrano, a friend of the Becciu family.
The voice of Zambranowhich, according to what we read allegedly played “an active role in carrying out the logging operations”, can also be heard on the track, a few minutes before the start of the conversation between the Pope, clearly suffering from the after-effects of the surgery, and Becciu, which probably took place between two landline telephones. At one point in the recording a male voice is also heard in the background, which seems to say “Let me hear you”, but it is not clear which of the two interlocutors the fourth participant is close to.
The phone call dates back to July 24, 2021 at 2.25 pm, twenty days after the delicate operation that Bergoglio underwent at the Gemelli Polyclinic. The news was reported by Vatican promoter of justice Alessandro Diddi during the 37th hearing of the trial for the financial scandal linked to the sale of the London building on Sloane Avenue. Before the audio of the recorded phone call was released, the audience was forced out of the Chamber.
Despite this, the Vatican prosecutor gave his interpretation of that phone call that took place in Cardinal Angelo Becciu’s apartment inside the former Sant’Uffizio building in the presence of the same cardinal, accused in the trial, of Maria Luisa Zambrano, nephew of the cardinal, and of an unidentified third person. According to Diddi, the call was recorded by Zambrano’s mobile phone and Becciu said to the Pope: “You have already sentenced me, it is useless for the trial to take place”. Also according to Diddi, Becciu would have asked the Pope to confirm that he had authorized him to pay for the ransom of the Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali.
“Even in his spontaneous declarations at the trial – Diddi recalled – Cardinal Becciu always said that the Pope was in the know, instead from the phone call the Pope would seem perplexed. After all, a short time had passed since his resignation from Gemelli after the delicate intervention and it was fatigued”.
From a chat of 23 June 2021, Diddi always reported, Cardinal Becciu’s expectation for a phone call, or a soothing gesture from the Pope, would emerge, which however does not arrive. In a chat on July 13, Diddi always reported, something different happened: Giovanni Palma, a friend of the cardinal’s niece said: “You should hit the Holy Father on the head”. On 24 July, the recorded telephone call with the Pope arrives from the Becciu house and lasts a few minutes.
The president of the Vatican Tribunal, Giuseppe Pignatone, declared admissible the request to listen to the phone call later in the Chamber, allowing time for the defense until November 30 to come up with a defensive strategy.
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