VATICAN CITY – A Vatican prosecutor on Tuesday began interrogating Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict’s butler who is being held on charges of stealing papal documents, the Vatican said.
Vatican officials said Gabriele was interrogated in the presence of his two lawyers and another Vatican judicial official known as the “promoter of justice”.
The prosecutor must now decide whether there is enough evidence to order Gabriele, who was arrested on May 23, to stand trial on charges of aggravated theft.
Gabriele, who has dual Vatican and Italian nationality, was arrested as part of a Vatican investigation into a scandal that has come to be known as “Vatileaks,” in which papal documents were leaked to Italian media.
Vatican officials said Gabriele could be held for up to 100 days before an eventual trial begins but that they expected the period to be much less.
