Judge of the Vatican’s Civil Court Under Investigation for Alleged Favours to the Mafia

(ZENIT News / Rome, 08.08.2-24).- Last July 15, the prosecutors of the Sicilian community of Caltanissetta announced the investigation of Giuseppe Pignatone, current principal Judge of the Vatican’s Civil Court, accused allegedly of favouring the Mafia during an investigation in 1992, initiated by Judge Paolo Borsellino shortly after the death of Giovanni Falcone, another anti-mafia Judge.

Pignatone took up the post in the Vatican in October of 2019, and presided over the trial, which tried various financial crimes, after being Deputy Prosecutor in Palermo. He is mentioned in the investigation together with Gioacchino Natoli, who headed the Prosecutor’s Office in Palermo, and Stefano Screpanti, senior official of Italy’s Financial Police.

Judge Pignatone says he is innocent and willing to cooperate in the investigation. 75 years old, he is considered an outstanding figure of the Italian legal system and dedicated much time in the past to anti-mafia processes. Then he was Chief Prosecutor in Reggio Calabria, where he headed anti-mafia cases. In October of 2010, an anonymous individual accused Pignatone in the local court headquarters, an accusation that was unsuccessful.

In 2012 Pignatone was appointed Rome’s Chief Prosecutor and launched the process with charges of collusion between officials of the city and mafiosi in the administration of reception centers for immigrants  and of rubbish collection to divert money from the city’s coffers. Forty public officials and alleged mafiosi of Rome and of the Lazio region were arrested and accused.

The lawyer who represented the alleged mafioso Salvatore Buzzi, of Rome, was Alessandrro Diddi, today the Vatican’s Promoter of Justice, who took part in the processes promoted by Pignatore. Already in Falcone’s diaries published in 2018,conflicts appear, which he had with Pignatone and other officials, when working in the Prosecutor’s Office of Palermo. One of the disagreements was in January  of 1991, when Pignatone met with Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardo of Palermo, to discuss details about the various anti-mafia investigations without Falcone’s knowledge.

The Vatican hasn’t made any comment on the new investigation of Pignatone underway.

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