[HCDX] Cardinal, priest sentenced for Vatican radio waves

["Mike Terry" <miketerry73@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

09 May 2005

ROME, May 9 (Reuters) - An Italian court found a Roman Catholic cardinal and
a director of Vatican Radio guilty on Monday of polluting the atmosphere
with powerful electromagnetic waves from a radio transmission station.
Cardinal Roberto Tucci, who used to head the Vatican Radio's management
committee, and the station's director general, Father Pasquale Borgomeo,
were given 10-day suspended sentences and ordered to pay damages in the
case, court officials said.

Both men have denied the charges and defence lawyers said they would appeal
against the ruling.
The case sprang from a medical report released in 2001 by a public health
agency that showed unusually high numbers of people living near a forest of
Vatican Radio antennas to the north of Rome who contracted or died from
leukaemia

An initial trial was halted in 2002 after a judge ruled that Italian laws
could not be applied to the Vatican Radio because its transmission centre
was seen as a part of the Vatican City, which is an independent sovereign
state.
That decision was later overturned and Vatican Radio officials found
themselves back in the dock.

"After so many delays and so much wasted time, today we have achieved an
important success which underscores the need to protect people from the risk
of 'electro-smog'," said Roberto Della Seta, chairman of environmental group
Legambiente.

Vatican Radio, which broadcasts news in some 40 languages, says it meets
international transmission limits and has rejected the findings of a second,
independent report that said its high capacity antennas might have caused
the cancer surge.

"This verdict is clearly unjustifiable," Vatican Radio said in a statement.
"We are hopeful that in the appeals stages, Italian justice will recognise
that the broadcaster's management acted correctly," it added.

The judge on Monday ruled that a civil arbitration body should set the level
of the damages. One consumer's group, Codacons, has already demanded 200.6
million euros ($257.5 million) in damages and others are likely to join
suit.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0955030.htm



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