ROME, October 8 - RAPSI. A Vatican court has sentenced Pope Benedict XVI's former butler Paolo Gabriele to 18 months in prison for stealing documents from the Pope's apartments, the local TMNews agency reports.

It is highly likely that Pope Benedict XVI will acquit Gabriele, director of the Holy See Press Office Federico Lombardi said on Saturday.

He added that the decision may be made after the Pope examines the court records.

Gabriele was arrested on May 23 at the Vatican home he shared with his wife and three children. At the time of his arrest, several boxes of confidential documents were discovered in the apartment. The contents of these boxes included the pope's private letters, along with special equipment used to copy documents.

Gabriele is believed to have stolen a 100,000 Euro cashier's check signed by the pope, a nugget of gold, and an edition of the Aeneid published in 1581, in addition to the documents.

Claudio Sciarpelletti, former computer programmer for the Vatican's secretariat of state, stands accused of collaborating with Gabriele.