Lucio Ángel Vallejo Balda

Lucio Ángel Vallejo Balda (born in Villamediana de Iregua, Logroño, Spain, 12 June 1961) is a Vatican monsignor who was jailed for leaking official documents in the Vatileaks scandal. The clergyman admitted to passing classified documents to journalists. He is the highest-ranking Vatican official ever to be arrested. Pope Francis granted him clemency after he served half of the 18-month jail sentence.

He was charged with leaking documents to Italian journalists and claimed he was manipulated by co-defendant and PR consultant Francesca Chaouqui who, he said, seduced him in a hotel in Florence in 2014. Chaouqui denied this, and suggested instead that he was gay.

Vallejo was found guilt of stealing documents and passing them to journalists on 7 July 2016 and was imprisoned in a cell in Vatican City by the Gendarme Corps of Vatican City State. He was released under house arrest but later return to jail for using a mobile phone.

Vallejo is a member of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, associated with Catholic organisation Opus Dei. Following his release from prison he was returned to the Diocese of Astorga in Spain.