The Pope has commuted the prison sentence of a Spanish priest convicted in July of disclosing Vatican information and said that he should be freed.
In a trial dubbed 'Vatileaks II', Monsigor Angel Lucio Vallejo Balda was sentenced to 18 months in a Vatican jail after the confidential documents were later published by two Italian journalists in two best-selling books.
The 55 year old, who has already served more than half of his sentence, will no longer work at the Vatican but will be posted in the Spanish diocese of Astorga, the Vatican has announced.
The Holy See Press Office revealed Vallejo Balda would be under "conditional freedom" for the rest of his sentence, however, it did not elaborate what that means.
He was convicted over the summer alongside Italian public relations expert Francesca Chaouqui, who was handed a ten month suspended sentence.
The pair were members of the Commission for Reference on the Organization of the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See, which examined potential reforms of the Vatican financial system in 2013-2014.
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