Vatican prosecutor appeals verdict that largely dismantled his fraud case but convicted cardinal

The Vatican’s chief prosecutor has appealed a court verdict that largely dismantled his theory of a grand conspiracy to defraud the Holy See of millions of euros but found a cardinal guilty of embezzlement. Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi filed his appeal earlier this week, days after the three-judge tribunal issued its verdict in a complicated financial trial that aired the Vatican's dirty laundry and tested the peculiar legal system in an absolute monarchy in the center of Europe. While the headline from Saturday’s verdict focused on Cardinal Angelo Becciu’s 5 ½-year sentence for embezzlement, the meat of the ruling made clear that the judges rejected most of Diddi’s 487-page indictment.