Francesca Chaouqui

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Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui (born December 8, 1981 in San Sosti , Province of Cosenza ) is an Italian lobbyist , public relations specialist and owner of an agency. She was the only female protagonist of the Vatileaks 2.0 affair and was on trial in the Vatican State.

Life

Origin and professional career

Chaouqui is the daughter of an Italian from Calabria and a Frenchman of Moroccan descent, but she never met her father. She completed a law degree at La Sapienza University in Rome and was hired by the prestigious Pavia, Ansaldo law firm at the age of 22 . After a little over three years she moved to the Roman branch of the international law firm Orrick , where she took over public relations. From 2013 to 2014 she worked for the international auditing company Ernst & Young .

Her sponsors included the former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti and Countess Marisa Pinto Olori del Poggio , a woman with the greatest influence in political and religious circles in Italy. Chaouqui himself describes himself as being close to Opus Dei , but also frequented the Vedrò think tank of the former left-liberal Prime Minister of Italy, Enrico Letta .

COSEA, Vatileaks 2.0

At the beginning of 2013, Chaouqui was appointed by Pope Francis to the eight-member auditing commission COSEA , which was supposed to examine the financial conduct of the Vatican State , its companies and foundations. She was the only woman and, at the age of 31, by far the youngest member of the commission, which sparked a series of speculation in the Italian press. At the same time, serious concerns were expressed about her qualifications and her admiration for the investigative journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi was pointed out. The commission worked out a new financial architecture for the Vatican State and was dissolved again in spring 2014. In February 2015, the College of Cardinals discussed this subject at its two-day meeting in Rome behind closed doors, after reports from Cardinals George Pell and Reinhard Marx , as well as the banker Jean Baptiste de Franssu and the economist Joseph FX Zahra .

On October 31, 2015, Chaouqui was  arrested by the gendarmerie of the Vatican State and subjected to interrogation in view of the upcoming book publications by the investigative journalists Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi . The Spanish prelate Lucio Ángel Vallejo Balda , also a former member of COSEA, was arrested and interrogated . The accusation is dissemination of confidential information and documents , a crime that only in June 2013 - as a result of Vatileaks 1.0  in the - Criminal Code of Vatican City was taken. Chaouqui protested her innocence, agreed to cooperate with the Vatican authorities and was released two days later. Since November 24th she has stood as a defendant before the Vatican Court, together with the prelate Vallejo Balda, the two journalists Fittipaldi and Nuzzi and the COSEA employee Nicola Maio. On July 7, 2016, Chaouqui was sentenced by the responsible criminal chamber to ten months in prison, which was suspended.

Private

Chaouqui is married to the computer scientist Corrado Lanino , who has worked for the Istituto per le Opere di Religione and the Fondazione Santa Lucia , which is also owned by the church . She gave birth to a son a good three weeks before the end of the trial.

Quote

“The main points of my defense are that I did not hand over these documents. I have never acted against the Holy Father and I will never do that. Nevertheless I am described like a witch - although ... the witch trials started here too. "

- Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui : On the allegations of the Vatican Court of Justice, December 2015

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Francesca Chaouqui: la mia verità . In: L'Espresso , September 17, 2013
  2. ↑ Abbreviation of: “ Commissione di studio sulle strutture economiche e amministrative della Santa Sede ” (German: “Commission for the review of the economic and administrative structures of the Vatican”)
  3. ↑ Francesca Chaouqui: busy, lobbyist, Nuzzi admirer, new papal commissioner . Katholisches.info, July 26, 2013
  4. ^ Curia reform on the test bench . ZDF , February 13, 2015
  5. ^ Vatileaks trial: priest sentenced to 18 months in prison . Spiegel Online , July 7, 2016, accessed July 7, 2016.
  6. ↑ Vatileaks II: main defendant no longer under house arrest . Vatican Radio, June 14, 2016, accessed July 7, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Chaouqui, Francesca Immacolata
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian lobbyist and public relations specialist
DATE OF BIRTH December 8, 1981
PLACE OF BIRTH San Sosti