A Vatican court on Saturday found a Holy See computer expert guilty of obstruction of justice in the investigation of leaks of sensitive papal documents to the media by Pope Benedict's former butler. The same court which last month convicted Paolo Gabriele, the Pope's former butler, gave Claudio Sciarpelletti a two-month suspended sentence. It ruled he "helped obstruct" the investigation by changing his version of events several times under police questioning.
The leaks unleashed one of the biggest crises of Pope Benedict's papacy, embarrassing the Vatican at a time when it was struggling to overcome several child sex abuse scandals involving clerics, as well as mismanagement at its bank. Vatican watchers are sceptical that Gabriele could have acted alone, suggesting he may have been forced to take the blame in order to shield bigger players inside the Holy See. They say both men could be pawns in a palace power struggle.
Sciarpelletti's sentence was reduced from four to two months because he had no criminal record and suspended because of his long service with the Vatican. The defence said it will appeal. The defence argued Sciarpelletti, a friend of the former butler, was confused and in shock after his arrest, which explained why he gave investigatorsdifferent versions of events.
"Why would a man who had so much to lose, his job, his reputation, obstruct justice for someone else?" defence lawyer Gianluca Benedetti said. When Vatican police searched Sciarpelletti's desk in the Secretariat of State - the nerve centre of the Holy See's administration - they found a closed envelope addressed to Gabriele marked "personal". It contained a printed e-mail and documentation relating to a chapter in a book about Vatican corruption and intrigue written by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, who had received confidential documents from Gabriele.