Gianluigi Torzi will not go back to Italy to stand trial in the Vatican. He is charged for his role in the Holy See’s costly London real estate losses.
Newsroom (03/11/2021 09:30 AM, Gaudium Press) An Italian appeals court has definitively annulled the arrest warrant for the prime suspect, Gianluigi Torzi, in the Vatican’s big fraud and embezzlement trial. The move signals an end to extradition procedures in Britain, his legal team said Wednesday.
The decision by Rome’s Tribunal of Review came as a blow to Italian prosecutors and Vatican prosecutors, who had been trying to bring Gianluigi Torzi back to Italy to eventually stand trial in the Vatican. He is charged for his role in the Holy See’s costly London real estate deal.
The Vatican does not have an extradition treaty with Britain. Yet, the city state’s prosecutors had provided evidence to their Italian counterparts who launched their investigation into Torzi’s finances, alleging tax evasion, money laundering and other crimes, seeking his arrest on an international warrant to stand trial in Italy.
The London-based Torzi denies wrongdoing in both the Italian and Vatican cases. The criminal case will proceed in his absence.
Overview
THe case against Torzi was launched after Vatican prosecutors investigated him for his role in the Holy See’s bungled 350 million-euro investment in a London residential property.
Prosecutors accuse Torzi of atempting to extort the Vatican of 15 million euros to turn over full ownership of the property.
The Vatican tribunal indicted him in July. His status in the trial, however, has not advanced. Extradition conflicts between Italy and Britain and debate on the legitimacy of the Italian arrest warrant have been the issue.
Meanwhile, the Italian Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest court, annulled the warrant in October. When Torzi’s lawyers appealed, the case reverted to the Tribunal for Review. Last month, the Cassation Court found the Italian prosecutors did not provide full documentation beneficial to Torzi’s defense as the judge evaluated the warrant issue. After conferring the missing evidence, the Review Tribunal annulled the warrant, Torzi’s lawyers Marco Franco and Ambra Giovene informed in a statement.
“Finally, justice has been done concerning an arrest warrant that had no juridical or logical sense,” the statement noted. Lawyers will continue to fight both the Italian and the Vatican cases “with the necessary serenity,” the statement concluded.
Compiled by Saju Hasmoukth
