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Fr-Lucio-Balda-Francesca-Chaouqui-main_article_image.jpg
PA
World News

Vatileaks priest given prison sentence

by Aaron James

Fr Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda (above, far right) released the documents with PR executive Francesca Chaouqui (above), who received a ten-month suspended sentence.

The pair leaked the documents to journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi (above, far left) and Emiliano Fittipaldi (above), who both published books claiming widespread financial mismanagement in the Vatican but also praising Pope Francis' attempts to reform it.

The two journalists were also on trial but the Holy See court found that because they received the confidential information on Italian rather than Vatican soil, they did not have the right to convict them and subsequently acquitted them.

Fr Balda's assistant Nicola Maoi was also acquitted.

Pope Francis has previously publicly admitted that Vatican finances have been at times mismanaged but he condemned the defendants for leaking confidential documents rather than seeking to reform the organisation legally.

Others have criticised the Vatican for trying the five defendants, saying it shows it does not value transparency or press freedom.

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