PR expert Francesca Immacolata
Chaouqui on Monday said she intends to appear in the courtroom
on Tuesday for the first hearing in a Vatican trial over a
document-leaking scandal in which she and five others were
indicted at the weekend.
Chaouqui was indicted with former secretary of the COSEA
commission on the Holy See's economic-administrative structure
Monsignor Lucio Angel Vallejo Balda, and his former assistant
Nicola Maio.
The three are charged with conspiracy to commit a crime and
with removing and distributing confidential Vatican documents.
Those indictments came together with those of two
journalists, Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi, who are
charged with using and distributing the allegedly stolen
confidential information in their recent books, Avarice and
Merchants in the Temple.
On Monday Chaouqui reiterated that she is innocent.
"I've decided that on Tuesday I'll defend myself on trial,
to show that not one paper ever passed from my hands to those of
a journalist, any journalist, not only Emiliano and Gianluigi,"
Chaouqui said on her Facebook page.
"Maybe it won't do any good, but I'll fight like a lion so
that the truth emerges".
Monsignor Balda was arrested over the weekend of October 31
and has been in Vatican jail since that time, while Chaouqui,
who was arrested and jailed at the same time, was released after
agreeing to cooperate with the investigation.
"I wouldn't surrender myself to a trial based on rules from
1923. In the end I'm an Italian citizen upon whom nothing can be
imposed from the Vatican so long as I stay on Italian soil,"
Chaouqui said.
The two journalists on Monday said they also intend to
appear in court on Tuesday, Nuzzi in a tweet and Fittipaldi
through a letter published in Italian daily La Repubblica.
Italy's National Order of Journalists on Monday said that
their professional code calls for journalists to "give news and
not keep secrets," adding that they must "adhere to the
substantial truth of the facts".
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