Vatican judges in fraud trial agree defense rights violated

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A Vatican tribunal has agreed that 10 defendants in a fraud trial were deprived of their rights. The trial concerns the Holy See’s 2013 investment in a London real estate venture that lost the Vatican tens of millions of euros .The tribunal ordered prosecutors on Wednesday to give the defense key evidence and essentially start their investigation over for some defendants. The tribunal’s president says the steps are needed to overcome “lamentable violations” of procedure by the pope’s prosecutors. He said they failed to allow the suspects to respond to all accusations during the preliminary phase of the investigation. He also ordered them to turn over the videotaped recordings of a key suspect-turned-star witness.