The home of Vatileaks 2 defendant Francesca Chaouqui and her husband Corrado Lanino was raided Tuesday because of suspected illicit access to computers in connection with a Terni probe into suspected irregularities in the sale of a castle at Narni, judicial sources said Wednesday.
Lanino, a computer expert, is suspected of helping his wife access files with the help of another man, former Italian premier's office staffer, Mario Benotti, whose premises were not searched, the sources said.
Rome prosecutors on Monday placed Chaouqui and Lanino under
investigation for suspected irregularities in the sale of San
Girolamo castle.
In another development this week, Rome prosecutors placed
Silvio Berluscon's brother Paolo under investigation for
suspected embezzlement in the Terni probe.
Chaouqui allegedly promised the younger Berlusconi to act
on judicial requests to the Vatican regarding Silvio
Berlusconi's purported accounts at the Vatican Bank - a
suggestion the Berlusconis have denied.
Chaouqui, a public relations expert, is currently on trial
in the Vatican along with four others for allegedly leaking
confidential documents.
Chaouqui's co-defendants are investigative journalists
Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi, Monsignor Lucio Angel
Vallejo Balda and his former assistant Nicola Maio.
Chaouqui, Balda and Maio are charged with leaking the
confidential material and Nuzzi and Fittipaldi with using it in
two recently published books - one titled Avarice, the other
Merchants in the Temple - documenting Vatican waste and
mismanagement and lavish spending by clergymen.
Balda, who is jailed in a Vatican prison, reportedly
alleged in a written statement that he and Chaouqui were lovers
and that he feared she may be a secret service agent.
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