Hearings are underway in what is being described as the largest scandal in Vatican history, an incredible story that has implications for the Church as a whole and the Vatican’s standing in the world.

The case primarily involves charges against one of the highest-ranking Vatican officials, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was considered at one time to be the most influential cardinal in the Vatican and a potential successor to Pope Francis. Becciu is now facing a host of corruption charges concerning his role in the acquisition by the Vatican Secretariat of State of a commercial property in London, from which the Vatican claims it lost hundreds of millions of dollars. The case has upset the traditional power structures at the Vatican and has even engulfed the Vatican’s own Financial Intelligence Unit, as well as the seller and broker of the London property.

Beyond the specific facts of the property deal, the case has turned heads around the world due to the worrying practices of the Vatican around fairness of due process and rule of law.

Strangely, despite the alleged criminality supposedly taking place in the U.K. and the Vatican’s losses being suffered in London, there has to date been no criminal case before the English courts against any of the defendants. Instead, the Vatican initiated an investigation and trial within its territory, allowing prosecutors to rely on arcane and frankly questionable practices.

https://www.ibtimes.com/strange-case-vatican-its-implications-international-rule-law-3536674