Vatileaks: Gabriele sentenced to eighteen months in prison, he acted alone
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - One year and six months' imprisonment and the payment of court costs: this is the verdict passed by the Vatican Court against Paolo Gabriele, Benedict XVI's former butler, who was found guilty of aggravated theft, with the granting of extenuating circumstances.
The promoter of justice Nicola Picardi - in practice the prosecutor - said that Gabriel acted without accomplices and that he had requested a sentence of three years' imprisonment. In the absence of precedents in the Vatican, the promoter made recourse to Italian criminal law to establish the sentences for the three counts (simple, aggravated and qualified theft). The sentence took into account the charge of aggravated theft (worth up to four years in prison) and the extenuating circumstances (minus one year). A partial ban was handed down on his form of employment: While he has been barred from working in offices that deal with " judiciary, administrative and legal" tasks, the possibility remains open that he may continue to work in the Vatican. His years of service prior to the theft were taken into account in the reduction of the sentence as well as his motivations "even if erroneous, they led him to act for the good of the Church and of the Pope, his admission that he had damaged the Holy Father."
For her part, the defense attorney Christina Arrua, had requested the charge be classified not as theft but embezzlement and the subsequent release of the accused. The defense had argued there were some'' holes'' in the court procedures. The lawyer also pointed out the Vatican police failure to use gloves in the search on Gabriele's home. "They touched documents making it impossible to run a fingerprint exam" on the alleged gold nugget found in the apartment. In addition, an inventory was never made of the documents found, nor photos taken during the search and there is no record of the "discovery of the check that 100 thousand Euros payable to the pope and the nugget" that Benedict XVI's Secretary, Mgr. Georg Gaenswein, were shown without judicial authorization.
The same lawyer, after the judgment, described the sentencing as "balanced", adding that any appeal will be considered "later" and that "Gabriele will go home for now." This last statement refers to the fact that the court must meet again to decide if and when Gabriel will be imprisoned. For now, the former butler has returned to his home in the Vatican, where, however, he has been held under house arrest for months.
Before the verdict, responding to the judge's question: "do you consider yourself guilty or innocent?" Gabriele repeated that he does not consider himself a thief. "I am strongly convinced - he said - that I acted exclusively out of love, a visceral love, for Christ's Church and its visible head. That 's what I feel. I repeat, I am not a thief. "
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