In its acquittal of two Italian journalists and conviction of a priest and a PR expert in so-called ‘Vatileaks 2’ trial, the Holy See showed "justice and clemency," as well as "full transparency," Vatican Radio cited spokesman Federico Lombardi as saying late Thursday.
A Vatican court on Thursday cleared Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi saying it did not have the authority to try the journalists, who published leaked confidential information in tell-all books about mismanagement, waste and graft within the Holy See.
Lombardi said the Vatican was required to try Nuzzi, Fittipaldi and three other defendants under a law issued in 2013 after the first 'Vatikleaks' scandal when Pope Benedict XVI's butler was found guilty of leaking confidential papal correspondence and documents to Italian media.
The Vatican court on Wednesday jailed Spanish Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda for 18 months and gave PR consultant Francesca Chaouqui a 10-month suspended sentence for leaking the classified documents.
It cleared of wrongdoing the fifth defendant, Balda's former assistant Nicola Maio.
The Vatican was widely criticised for prosecuting Nuzzi and Fittipaldi, a move seen as harming freedom of speech and information.
But Lombardi, rejected suggestions that the trial had been an over-reaction. “It needed to be done, to demonstrate the will to fight with determination the manifestations and the mistaken consequences of internal Vatican tensions and controversies,” he said.
All five defendants were charged by the Vatican with "Crimes against the Security of the State” and faced possible prison terms of between four and eight years.
