ROME -- The Vatican prosecutor has opened a new investigation into the alleged leak of information about its “trial of the century” probe into a London property investment, the Holy See said Tuesday.

The leak was discovered during a larger, unrelated Italian investigation focused on a financial police official accused of illegally accessing a police database and sharing its information with journalists.

Based on Italian media reports, the names of four key suspects in the Vatican's trial were among hundreds of names accessed from the Italian police database. Their data was accessed in July 2019, coinciding with the commencement of the Vatican prosecutors' investigation into the London property.

At the time, only a select few individuals in the Vatican were aware of the investigation, including the pope, the prosecutors’ office and the Vatican gendarmes, many of whom have connections to Italian law enforcement as they previously worked there before joining the Vatican.

The Vatican’s chief prosecutor, Alessandro Diddi, and the head of the city-state’s gendarmes, Gianluca Gauzzi, met on Tuesday in Perugia with the Italian chief prosecutor, Raffaele Cantone, who is leading the broader Italian investigation into the database case, according to a Vatican communiqué.

According to the statement, the purpose of the meeting was to agree on initiating a joint effort in the two parallel investigations. The Vatican probe, it stated, would focus on the “alleged unauthorized accesses made during the course of investigations in the well-known inquiry concerning the purchase of the London building.”

Diddi prosecuted 10 individuals in connection with the London investment and other financial crimes. In December, the Vatican tribunal convicted nine of them, including the once influential Cardinal Angelo Becciu.

Data belonging to four other defendants convicted of various offenses - Cecilia Marogna, Raffaele Mincione, Gianluigi Torzi and Fabrizio Tirabassi - was accessed from the Italian police database, according to La Stampa newspaper and other media outlets. These individuals were among hundreds whose information was accessed, including that of prominent Italian politicians, business, sports and entertainment figures.

According to reports, the police official who accessed the information, along with three reporters from the Domani newspaper are under investigation as part of the Perugia probe. The newspaper's 2022 investigative reports on the Italian defense minister triggered the Perugia investigation.