Vatican due to issue trial decision

The Vatican is expected to announce if the former butler to Pope Benedict XVI will stand trial for stealing secret correspondence from the pontiff's desk.

Paolo Gabriele was charged in May after police found confidential letters and memos at his Vatican flat.

Earlier this year a series of media leaks, dubbed "Vatileaks", exposed alleged corruption and conflicts at the Holy See.

In April, the Pope set up a commission to find the source of the leaks.

As the Pope's butler and personal assistant, Mr Gabriele was one of a select few lay people with access to the papal apartments.

The 46-year-old is currently living under house arrest at his family's Vatican flat, where police discovered a stash of confidential correspondence taken from the Pope's Secretariat of State.

Mr Gabriele's lawyer said his client confessed to stealing the papers but told investigators he thought he was acting in the interests of the Catholic Church.

The Vatican has denied Italian media reports suggesting that Mr Gabriele was part of a group of 20 or so whistleblowers led by a cardinal.

'Scapegoat'

Mr Gabriele's arrest took place shortly after the publication of a controversial book, entitled His Holiness, by Italian investigative journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi.

The bestseller featured reproductions of private correspondence between the Pope and his personal secretary discussing corruption and malpractice among Vatican administrators.

The Vatican called the book "criminal" and vowed to take legal action against the author, publisher, and whoever leaked the documents.

Mr Nuzzi has refused to divulge whether Mr Gabriele was one of his sources.

The BBC's David Willey, in Rome, says some Vatican observers believe Mr Gabriele may be the scapegoat for a wider conspiracy to smear certain of the Pope's top aides.

The highly sensitive media leaks have been an evident embarrassment to the Pope, prompting the rare investigation, our correspondent says.

The Vatileaks scandal has dominated the columns of Italian newspapers, filling TV programmes and magazines.

The controversy began in January, when Mr Nuzzi published letters from a former top Vatican administrator begging the Pope not to transfer him for having exposed alleged corruption.

Other leaked documents concerned "poison pen" memos criticising Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the pope's number two, and the reporting of suspicious payments by the Vatican Bank.

(Published by BBC - August 13, 2012)