(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 26 - Pope Francis will not be called on to testify in an ongoing trial into alleged graft and negligence in managing the Vatican's property portfolio including a luxury apartment on London's Sloane Avenue, Vatican court chair Giuseppe Pignatone said Thursday.
    Francis was not listed among the witnesses for the defence of Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the highest ranking Vatican official to be tried for financial crimes, and other defendants, all of whose lawyers had requested the pontiff's testimony.
    But Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin may be called to testify, Pignatone said.
    Among the witnesses for the defence announced Thursday is the Substitute for General Affairs, mons. Edgar Pena Parra, the president of Vatican bank IOR, Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, and Cardinal Becciu's brother, Antonino.
    Sardinian-born Becciu, 74, had an audience with France at the end of November after which he said he pope had encouraged him in the case, in which the Sardinian cardinal was last year heard on a wiretap saying Francis "wants me dead".
    Pignatone also blocked further testimony by former Vatileaks defendant Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, one of Becciu's chief accusers. (ANSA).