VATICAN CITY (OSV News) — The Vatican’s appeals court declared a partial mistrial in the high-profile financial misconduct case involving Cardinal Angelo Becciu and other defendants, citing procedural errors by prosecutors in the Vatican trial that led in 2023 to a jail sentence for the cardinal on several counts of financial embezzlement.
In a 16-page ruling issued March 17, the Court of Appeal presided over by Archbishop Alejandro Arellano Cedillo declared that Vatican prosecutors made procedural errors that undermined the defendants’ right to a fair defense.
Stopping short of invalidating the proceedings entirely, the court ordered that parts of the original proceedings were invalid and need to be reheard, including witness testimony and the evaluation of specific evidence. A next hearing is set to begin June 22.
The court specified that ruling of “relative nullity” does not completely overturn the legal effects of the original judgment in December 2023 in which Cardinal Becciu was sentenced to five and half years in prison, a permanent disqualification from holding public office, and a fine equal to more than $8,000.
— London real estate deal
The case centers on the Holy See’s investment of roughly 350 million euros (nearly $404 million) in a luxury London property development between 2014 and 2018. Prosecutors had alleged that brokers and Vatican officials extracted tens of millions of euros in improper fees and commissions during the acquisition.
The nearly two-and-a-half-year-long saga of the Vatican’s “Trial of the Century,” which sat for 86 sessions, convicted Cardinal Becciu and eight other defendants on charges including fraud and abuse of office, with the tribunal imposing tens of millions of euros in restitution to the Holy See. All defendants maintained their innocence and appealed.
— Prosecutors ordered to disclose full case file
Among the most significant provisions of the March 17 ruling, the court ordered the Office of the Promoter of Justice, the Vatican’s equivalent of a prosecutor’s office, led by Alessandro Diddi, to deposit the complete, unredacted record of all investigative documents with the court clerk’s office by April 30.
Defense attorneys had argued they received only partial materials, with key documents redacted. Among the omitted content, the ruling noted, were chat messages about the witness Msgr. Alberto Perlasca, a former director of the Secretariat of State’s Administrative Office.
Prosecutors had argued the redactions were necessary to protect parallel investigations, but the appeals court sided with the defense, finding the omissions constituted a foundational procedural violation.
Parties will have until June 15 to review the full documentation and prepare their respective cases.
— Papal decrees at the center of the dispute
The ruling also addressed a separate but related controversy over four papal rescripts, or executive decrees, issued by the late Pope Francis that significantly expanded the investigative powers of the Office of the Promoter of Justice during the investigations. Defense lawyers argued the rescripts were not published in a timely manner and were disclosed to the defense only just before the original trial began, depriving defendants of crucial information during the investigative phase.
The appeals court found that one of the rescripts effectively functioned as legislation, and that Pope Francis’ failure to make it public rendered it ineffective.
That finding carries significant consequences for the retrial, as it calls into question a range of prosecutorial actions taken under the authority those papal decrees conferred, including the 2020 detention of broker Gianluigi Torzi, who was held for 10 days in Vatican facilities and questioned without charge or judicial oversight.
— New pope, new call for judicial credibility
The ruling came just days after Pope Leo XIV opened Vatican City’s judicial year with a speech in which he spoke about the importance of “the observance of procedural safeguards, the impartiality of the judge, the effectiveness of the right of defense and the reasonable duration of proceedings” in preserving authority and institutional stability.
“Love and truth cannot be separated: only by loving do we know the truth, and the love of truth leads us to discover charity as its fulfillment,” the pope said. “For this reason, justice, when it is exercised with balance and fidelity to the truth, becomes one of the most stable factors of unity within the community.”
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