A Vatican tribunal has convicted a cardinal of embezzlement and sentenced him to 5 ½ years in prison in one of several verdicts handed down in a complicated financial trial that aired the city state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system. Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the first cardinal ever prosecuted by the Vatican criminal court, was absolved of several other charges and nine other defendants received a combination of guilty verdicts and acquittals among the nearly 50 charges brought against them during a 2 ½ year trial. Becciu’s lawyer, Fabrizio Viglione, said he respected the sentence but would appeal. Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi said the outcome “showed we were correct.”
