Narvaez was released in October, 2021, after more than four years in captivity. I must say that every step of this operation was agreed with the Holy Father,” Becciu testified. “I pointed out that we shouldn’t have gone beyond that figure. “In a subsequent meeting with the Holy Father, once in Rome, I spoke to him in more detail about the conversation we had with the Inkermans and the sum that we should have estimated in broad terms: about 1 million euros, part to pay for the creation of a network of contacts, and part for the effective liberation of the nun.” “He listened to me and confirmed my intention to proceed,” Becciu testified. 15, 2018, while the pope was en route to Peru. Because the Vatican wanted to remain external to any operation, Marogna became the key intermediary and the one to receive periodic payments from the Vatican secretariat of state for the operation, Becciu testified.īecciu said he provided Francis a preliminary oral readout of the London meeting on Jan. Inkerman officials said there were no assurances of success and that the total expenditure could reach 1 million euros, Becciu said. Francis was concerned about the security and reputational implications if the news leaked, Becciu said.īecciu said he and Marogna met with Inkerman officials at their London office in mid-January 2018. He said he brought the matter to Francis as well as Marogna, who he said advised him that she could work with a British intelligence firm, The Inkerman Group, to secure the nun’s release.īecciu testified that Francis authorized him to proceed with the Inkerman operation, and forbade him from telling anyone else about it, including the Vatican’s own police chief. During her captivity, the group periodically showed Narvaez on video asking for the Vatican's help.īecciu said he had heard from the Vatican's nuncio in Colombia as well as other sisters from the nun's religious order asking for help. She had been kidnapped by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which has bankrolled its insurgency by kidnapping Westerners. Marogna has said the transfers were reimbursements for expenditures and compensation for her services.īecciu testified Thursday that he hired Marogna as an external security consultant, impressed by her grasp of geopolitical affairs and the trust she enjoyed of two of Italy’s top secret service officials, Generals Luciano Carta and Gianni Caravelli, who accompanied her to a meeting with Becciu in the Vatican in October 2017.īecciu said he turned to Marogna for help following the February 2017 kidnapping of a Colombian nun, Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez, in Mali. Vatican prosecutors accuse her of embezzling 575 million euros, citing bank records from her Slovenian holding company that show nine wire transfers from the Vatican in 2018-2019 for unspecified humanitarian ends, and expenditures out of the account at Prada, Luis Vuitton and fancy hotels. Marogna has told Italian media that she helped negotiate the release of Catholic hostages in Africa on behalf of the Holy See. On Thursday, his testimony covered the charges concerning his relationship with an Italian self-styled intelligence specialist, Cecilia Marogna.
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Prosecutors have accused the defendants of a host of crimes for allegedly fleecing the Holy See of millions of euros in fees, commissions and bad investments.īecciu, the lone cardinal on trial, is accused of embezzlement, abuse of office and witness tampering, all of which he denies.
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#TV PATROL NOVEMBER 11 2015 TRIAL#
But he spoke freely Thursday in his own defense after Francis released him from the confidentiality requirement, providing the most anticipated testimony of the yearlong trial to date.īecciu is one of 10 people accused in the Vatican’s sprawling financial fraud trial, which originated in the Holy See’s 350 million euro investment in a London property and expanded to cover other alleged crimes. 2 in the Vatican secretariat of state, had withheld his testimony from the Vatican tribunal for nearly two years as a matter of state and pontifical secret. Becciu, who was once one of Francis’ top advisers as the No.