Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra testifies as a witness in a civil trial in London

On July 4 and 5, Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra testifies on behalf of the Vatican in a civil trial in London related to the building whose irregular purchase led to the conviction of Cardinal Angelo Becciu.

This is the purchase and sale of a property on a London street Sloane Avenuefor which 10 defendants have been convicted in the first instance for crimes of bribery and embezzlement, among others.

After 86 judicial hearings that began in July 2021, last December the Vatican City State Court condemned the Cardinal Angelo Becciu in the first instance to 5 years and 6 months in prison.

7 months after the close of the so-called “trial of the century”, the case is once again in the hands of the High Court of Justice of the United Kingdom, after the financier Raffaele Mincione, one of the 10 defendants, filed a civil lawsuit in 2020 to demonstrate “your good faith” in operations.

Questioned about “false” invoices for total control of the property

As reported Vatican NewsBishop Peña Parra, Substitute of the Secretary of State, was especially questioned about his relationship with the broker Gianluigi Torzi and not so much about the transactions carried out with the plaintiff Mincione.

The Archbishop had to explain why the Vatican handed over, on behalf of the companies Sunset Enterprise y Lighthouse, invoices of 5 and 10 million pounds to Torzi (also convicted in the first instance), to cede full control of the London building to the Holy See.

“Until the end they were lies and deceptions. We were trapped…; For this reason we were forced to accept Torzi’s requests and end any type of relationship with him,” declared the Archbishop, who claimed to have felt “totally deceived” and “ridiculed.”

About the informative document delivered to Pope Francis

He was also questioned about a 300-page document prepared after the Holy Father asked him for information about the situation in which the Secretariat of State found itself after his arrival in 2018.

In that “note,” the Venezuelan prelate reported on “a complex and multifaceted business” that had involved “a high level of financial, corporate and real estate technical knowledge.”

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Charles Samek, repeatedly asked Bishop Peña Parra the reason why that document did not cite the “false invoice that Torzi had sent to Swiss credit”, the aforementioned transfers of 5 and 10 million sent to Torzi from the Holy See for full control of the property.

The Substitute Secretary of State repeatedly assured that he did not lie and stated that “the invoice was false, but I insisted, on the subject of the transaction, on putting a ‘final, full and definitive balance’ of all our contractual obligations. “That was on my mind.”

“How should one behave with these types of people? Until the end it was lies and deception. We were trapped due to the situation,” the Archbishop asserted during the trial in London on Thursday, July 4, during an interrogation of more than two hours that will continue this Friday, July 5.