A Vatican appeals court on Tuesday declared a partial mistrial in the case that led to a jail sentence for Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu over the misappropriation of Church funds in a UK property deal.
The court found procedural flaws in the original trial tied to a botched purchase of 60 Sloane Avenue in London’s Chelsea district, a deal valued at about £200 million (roughly €230 million or $265 million). Prosecutors were faulted for failing to share full case files with defendants and for improperly redacting material, undermining the right to a fair defense, the court said.
Becciu’s lawyers, Fabio Viglione and Maria Concetta Marzo, welcomed the ruling, saying it confirmed their complaints about violations of defense rights. The 2023 conviction that had handed Becciu a five-and-a-half-year prison term had marked him as the most senior Church official ever tried by a Vatican criminal court.
The appeals judges also ruled that a decree issued by then‑Pope Francis — which allowed prosecutors to act without oversight from a preliminary judge — effectively constituted a new law but was void because it had not been published. The court said that the failure to publish the papal rescript made its use in the original proceedings invalid. Attorneys Massimo Bassi and Cataldo Intrieri, representing former Vatican official Fabrizio Tirabassi, said the decision rendered the entire investigation and trial null and anticipated quick acquittals at retrial.
Tribunal president Archbishop Alejandro Arellano Cedillo ordered prosecutors to deposit all documentation “in their original form” by April 30. The defense has until June 15 to file motions ahead of a retrial scheduled to begin June 22.
The two-and-a-half-year trial, which featured about 86 hearings, centered on the Vatican’s risky investment via a fund run by financier Raffaele Mincione. Prosecutors said the Holy See ultimately lost at least €140 million on the transaction. Eight other defendants were convicted in December on various charges; all maintain their innocence and are appealing.
The case exposed opaque elements of Vatican finances and internal infighting, and touched on other controversies that surfaced during the probe, including alleged ransom payments and espionage claims. The affair underlined Pope Francis’ earlier efforts to reform Vatican finances after he became pontiff in 2013.
Becciu, 77, was second in command at the Secretariat of State when the 2013 deal was struck and had once been considered a potential future pope. He was made a cardinal in 2018 and later asked by Francis to resign his prefectoral post and renounce certain privileges amid the allegations. He has remained active at some Church events but was ineligible to take part in the last papal conclave because of the case.
Current Pope Leo XIV, a canon lawyer, met recently with Vatican judges and prosecutors as the new judicial year opened. In remarks interpreted by some as an oblique reference to the Becciu matter, he stressed that adherence to procedural safeguards, judicial impartiality, effective defense rights and reasonable duration of proceedings are essential both to justice and to institutional stability.
Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko