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Europe

Lawyer to Vatican court: Client not likable, but not guilty

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    Public relations expert Francesca Chaouqui, center, arrives, with her newly born son Pietro, and her husband Corrado Lanino, second from left, at the Vatican for her trial, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Two Italian journalists who wrote books detailing Vatican mismanagement face trial in a Vatican courtroom along with three people accused of leaking them the information in a case that has drawn scorn from media watchdogs. (Giuseppe Lami/ANSA via AP Photo) (The Associated Press)

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    Public relations expert Francesca Chaouqui, right, back to camera, arrives with her newly born son Pietro, at the Vatican for her trial, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Two Italian journalists who wrote books detailing Vatican mismanagement face trial in a Vatican courtroom along with three people accused of leaking them the information in a case that has drawn scorn from media watchdogs. (Giuseppe Lami/ANSA via AP Photo) (The Associated Press)

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    Public relations expert Francesca Chaouqui, second from left, kisses her husband Corrado Lanino, as they arrive at the Vatican for her trial, Tuesday, July 5, 2016. Two Italian journalists who wrote books detailing Vatican mismanagement face trial in a Vatican courtroom along with three people accused of leaking them the information in a case that has drawn scorn from media watchdogs. (Giuseppe Lami/ANSA via AP Photo) (The Associated Press)

ROME – The lawyer for the woman at the heart of a Vatican leaks trial says her client may not be likable, but that she shouldn't be convicted just because she's "unpleasant, insufferable, arrogant and presumptuous."

Francesca Chaouqui was a member of a papal reform commission investigating Vatican finances. She, the commission's No. 2 and his secretary are charged with forming a criminal association and providing commission documents to two Italian journalists.

Lawyers for those on trial began their closing arguments Tuesday after prosecutors rested their case. Prosecutors requested the stiffest sentence, three years and nine months, for Chaouqui, a communications expert who gave birth during the trial.

The journalists, who wrote books based on the documents exposing greed, mismanagement and corruption in the Vatican, were also put on trial.