Becciu is the first-ever cardinal to be prosecuted by the Vatican criminal court and his lawyer, Fabio Viglione, said they will appeal the verdict, according to the Associated Press.
The complicated financial trial exceeded a duration of more than two years. Nearly 50 charges were brought against Becciu and his nine co-defendants, some of whom were found guilty while others were acquitted.
The trial centered on the investment of 350 million euros made by the Vatican secretariat of state in the conversion of a former Harrod's warehouse into high-end residential apartments. Prosecutors asserted that Vatican intermediaries and monsignors defrauded the Holy See of tens of millions of euros in commissions and fees, and then demanded 15 million euros in extortion to relinquish control of the building, AP reports.
Becciu faced a maximum of seven years in prison on charges of embezzlement pertaining to two tangents of the London deal.
Ultimately, his conviction for embezzlement resulted from the initial investment of 200 million euros by the Vatican into a fund that purchased the London property. Canon law forbade the use of church assets in such a speculative investment, the tribunal determined, according to AP.
Becciu was also found guilty of embezzlement for a 125,000 euro donation of Vatican funds to a charity operated by his brother in Sardinia. The court said he used Vatican funds to pay an intelligence analyst, who was subsequently found guilty of misappropriating the funds for personal gain.
The Italian broker who oversaw the fund and was based in London, Raffaele Mincione, was additionally found guilty of embezzlement. An immediate appeal was filed by his attorneys.
Given that Pope Francis has unlimited control over the legislature, the executive branch, and the courts and has used that authority in ways that the defense claims compromised the trial's fairness, the trial had cast doubt on the city state's legal system as well as his absolute monarchy, the outlet reports.
The defense attorneys bemoaned the Vatican's outdated court procedures and claimed it provided prosecutors a great deal of discretion to suppress evidence and generally carry out their probe almost unhindered.
However, Andrea Tornielli, the Vatican's editorial director, said after that trial that "The outcome of this trial tells us that the judges of the tribunal, as is right, acted with full independence based on documentary proofs and witnesses, not pre-confectioned theories."
To recoup the approximately 200 million euros that they claim the Holy See lost in the shady transactions, prosecutors had asked for damages exceeding 400 million euros. They also requested prison sentences ranging from three to thirteen years.
Ultimately, the tribunal found that many of the claims against the accused were baseless and cleared them of serious offenses like money laundering, corruption, and fraud.
At first, the trial was interpreted as an indication that Pope Francis was committed to addressing purported financial misconduct within the Vatican and had implemented robust financial reforms, according to AP. Revelations of vendettas, espionage, and even ransom payments to Islamic militants, however, reportedly caused something of a reputational boomerang for the Holy See.
