Overview

• The second-degree trial begins on September 22 with a reconstituted bench led by Monsignor Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, dean of the Roman Rota.
• Cardinal Angelo Becciu, convicted in 2023 to five years and six months for embezzlement and fraud and ordered to pay €91 million, attends while reaffirming his innocence.
• Becciu’s lawyers filed 188 pages of additional arguments and seek to admit extensive WhatsApp records, including a 3,225-page exchange between Francesca Chaouqui and Genoveffa Ciferri.
• The disputed chats, withheld in large part at first instance, feed defense claims of coached testimony involving Monsignor Alberto Perlasca and contacts with prosecutor Alessandro Diddi and gendarme Stefano De Santis.
• Promoter of Justice Alessandro Diddi continues to lead the case and is pursuing a subornation count that fell in first instance, as prior measures included the seizure of Becciu’s account and compensation orders tied to a Como court ruling.