1900-01-02 00:00:00

Verdict in Pope's butler trial expected this afternoon


(Vatican Radio) This morning, the Director of the Vatican Press Office, Fr Federico Lombardi, spoke briefly to journalists awaiting the final verdict in the trial that sees the Pope's former butler, Paolo Gabriele, facing charges of stealing and copying private documents and letters and leaking them to an Italian reporter.

Fr Lombardi said that trial proceedings reopened around 9.15 this morning when prosecution and defence lawyers presented their closing arguments. The Prosecution has called for Gabriele to be sentenced to three years in prison and to be excluded from any public office that would allow him access to classified materials or permit him to repeat the crime of which he is accused. Counsel for Defense has asked that the charge of aggravated theft be mitigated to simple theft and has insisted that Gabriele never intended to "harm the Church" in any way. While his actions were "reprehensible", his lawyer claimed the accused was motivated by the specific situation in which he found himself at the time. Speaking in his own defence, Paolo Gabriele repeated he had acted alone and without accomplices. He said he felt he was "not a thief" but had acted "for the good of the Church and for its visible head", the Pope.

According to Fr Lombardi, the verdict is expected to be delivered later this afternoon.







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