Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/701613
ByNicoleWinfield The Associated Press VATICAN CITY A Vatican court declared Thursday it had no jurisdiction to prosecute two journalists who wrote books based in part on confidential doc- uments exposing greed, mismanagement and cor- ruption in the Holy See, ending a trial that drew scorn from media rights groups. The court did convict a Vatican monsignor and an Italian public relations ex- pert for having conspired to leak documents, but cleared them of having formed a criminal associ- ation to do so. A fifth de- fendant, the monsignor's secretary, was absolved of all charges. The verdict was an em- barrassment to Vatican prosecutors, who had ac- cused journalists Emil- iano Fittipaldi and Gianlu- igi Nuzzi of conspiring and putting pressure on the three other defendants to get the information. Pros- ecutors had accused the three of forming a shady, secretive criminal organi- zation that conspired to re- veal confidential Vatican documents. In the end, the president of the four-judge tribu- nal, Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre, asserted the Vat- ican had no jurisdiction over the journalists and ruled there wasn't enough evidence to show that any such criminal organization existed. Speaking in the name of Pope Francis, Dalla Torre prefaced his sentence by insisting that the free- dom of the press was en- shrined in the Vatican le- gal code and that freedom of thought was "guaran- teed by divine law." Fittipaldi and Nuzzi wrote blockbuster books last year based on Vati- can documents exposing the greed of bishops and cardinals angling for big apartments, the extraor- dinarily high costs of get- ting a saint made, and the loss to the Holy See of mil- lions of euros in rental in- come because of underval- ued real estate. The documentation had been compiled by a pontif- ical commission ordered by Francis to gather in- formation about Vatican finances to make them more transparent and ef- ficient. Monsignor Lucio Vallejo Balda, the reform commis- sion's No. 2, admitted in court that he gave Nuzzi 85 passwords to password- protected documents. He denied the journalists threatened him and put the blame of feeling pres- sured on Francesca Cha- ouqui, the communica- tions consultant who was also a member of the com- mission. The court convicted Vallejo of passing docu- ments to the journalists and sentenced him to 18 months in prison. While clearing Chaouqui of ac- tually passing documents, the court found her guilty of conspiring with Vallejo and sentenced her to a 10-month suspended sen- tence. The fifth defendant, Nic- ola Maio, was cleared. It wasn't immediately clear if anyone would ap- peal. Chaouqui, who re- cently gave birth, had said she would have gone to prison, babe in arms, rather than appeal a con- viction or ask for a papal pardon. Publishing confidential information is a crime in the Vatican, punishable by up to eight years in prison. The journalists are Ital- ian and had challenged the Vatican's jurisdiction to prosecute them. Prose- cutors had asserted juris- diction over them anyway, but the court rejected that argument. CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS Vatican: No jurisdiction over journalists in leaks By Kathleen Hennessey The Associated Press WARSAW, POLAND Presi- dent Barack Obama opened a five-day, two-country mis- sion early Friday to buck up a beleaguered Europe and brush back an aggressive Moscow. On what is expected to be his last presidential visit to the continent, Obama is due to attend a summit of NATO allies in Warsaw, be- fore moving on to Seville and Madrid for his first presidential visit to Spain. In both corners of the con- tinent, he'll be surrounded by leaders still reeling from Britain's decision to pull out of the European Union and sorting through un- certainty about the future of the decades-old experi- ment in international co- operation. The White House says Obama will offer words of reassurance that the de- parture — whenever it oc- curs — won't disrupt the decades-old trans-Atlan- tic ties that bind. He'll em- phasize that Britain's exit, which does not affect its membership in NATO, only makes the 28-member mili- tary alliance more essential and its cooperation with the European Union more im- portant. And amid leaders' anxiety about whether his possible successor, Republi- can Donald Trump, would retrench from Europe, Obama will make case for stronger alliances and the benefits of globalization. "He feels like all leaders in Europe and in the United States — including himself — have a responsibility in the face of all these chal- lenges to the trans-Atlan- tic order that we've built to make the case on behalf of the values that the United States and Europe have stood for and the benefits to our countries," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser. The president's visit is his first chance to deliver that message in person, both to the European leaders tasked with smoothly nav- igating the tricky divorce and British Prime Minis- ter David Cameron, whom Obama personally tried but failed to save from the wave of anti-European sentiment that fueled the vote. Obama's first stop later Fridaymorningisasit-down with Donald Tusk and Jean- Claude Juncker, presidents of the European Council and European Commission, respectively.WhiteHouseof- ficials said Obama plans to discuss the fallout from the referendum and weigh in on how he thinks negotiations should proceed. Obama's agenda goes far beyond the so-called Brexit fallout. NATO plans to tout new efforts to send signals to Russia. The alliance re- cently agreed to bolster its presence in the east by de- ploying four multinational battalions on a rotational basis to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Obama also will meet Saturday with Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko to discuss the status of the stalled 2015 Minsk peace deal, which was intended to ease tensions after Rus- sia's incursion into eastern Ukraine. Ukraine has ac- cused Russia of failing to fulfill its obligations by not withdrawing its troops, al- though the Kremlin dis- putes that claim. "Russia is trying to en- gage in a battle of ideas," Rhodes said aboard Air Force One, adding that Moscow felt threatened by countries like Ukraine that want closer ties to Europe. "That cannot simply be swept under the rug." NATO leaders will also discuss the rising threat of Islamic State attacks in Eu- rope, the effort to address the migrant crisis caused by violence in the Middle East and North Africa and continued commitments to the mission in Afghanistan, where Obama acknowl- edged Wednesday the secu- rity situation was too frag- ile to stick to the planned timetable for drawing down troops. The unsettling mix of is- sues presents a striking contrast to the Europe that Obama met eight years ago, when he bounded on the world stage with a massive campaign speech in Berlin and was embraced by a Eu- ropean public eagerly seek- ing leadership in Washing- ton. In his first visit as presi- dent,Obamaspokehopefully of dealing with Moscow on nuclear weapons and looked ahead to new era of firmer alliances. "This is our gener- ation. This is our time," he said during a visit to Stras- bourg, Germany for a NATO summit in 2009. EUROPE Brexit on his mind, Obama arrives in Poland for summit SUSANWALSH—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Defense Secretary Ash Carter listens at le as President Barack Obama makes a statement on Afghanistan from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Wednesday. This could be your lucky day by helping a dog or cat find a loving home from... Paws & Claws ADOPT A PET TODAY Nala AdSponsorsh ip $ 32 Call Suzy at (530) 737-5056 TEHAMACOUNTYDEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL SERVICES 1830WalnutStreet P.O. Box 38 • Red Bluff, CA 96080 (530) 527-3439 CORNING ANIMAL SHELTER 4312 Rawson Rd. Corning, CA 96021 (530) 824-7054 Please help sponsor a classroom subscription Call Kathy at (530) 737-5047 to find out how. ThroughtheNewspapersinEducation program, area classrooms receive the Red Bluff Daily News every day thanks to the generosity of these local businesses & individuals. THANK YOUFORSUPPORTING N EWS D AILY REDBLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N TY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 NEWSPAPERS NIE • Dignity Health St. Elizabeth Community Hospital • Casa Serenity • Airport Auto Repair • Bretney-Sutterfield • California Walnut Company • Dudley's Excavating, Inc. • Etzler Financial & Insurance • Greenwaste Of Tehama • Gumm's Optical Shoppe • John Wheeler Logging, Inc. • Lepage Company • Modern Cleaners • North Main Automotive • Olive City Tax Professionals • Placer Title Company • Dr. Shoff Orthodontics • Tehama Co. Dept. Of Ed. • Wing Solar & Wood Energy • Walmart | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM FRIDAY, JULY 8, 2016 6 B