“The defence cannot fully exercise the right of defence if it does not have all the material,” said Becciu.
In this way the defence is “mortified”, he added.
Becciu is on trial in relation to alleged graft and negligence in managing the Vatican’s property portfolio including the purchase of a luxury apartment on London’s Sloane Avenue.
He is the highest-ranking Vatican official to be tried for financial crimes.
Speaking after the hearing, Becciu told reporters his lawyers had also asked for “clarity” on claims by the former head of the Administrative Office of the Secretariat of State, Msgr. Alberto Perlasca, former Vatileaks defendant Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui (one of Becciu’s chief accusers) and Perlasca’s friend Genoveffa Ciferri.
Becciu claims that they had “plotted” against him.
“They said themselves that they plotted against me. It’s a plot they made,” he said.
Their plot even involved instrumentalising the pope, he added.
Sardinian-born Becciu, 74, had an audience with Francis last November after which he said he pope had encouraged him in the case, contradicting what he was last year heard on a wiretap as saying: Francis “wants me dead”.
“They used the Pope to carry out a vindictive plan against me. I do not understand why there is no clarity on this aspect,” said Becciu.
ANSA
