The creator of the Football Leaks platform, Rui Pinto, admitted on Monday that he would not do what he did again, given the costs suffered on a personal level with the entire process, assuming that his life was “upside down”.
“The truth is that crime, even with good intentions, does not pay. Knowing what I know today, I wouldn’t get involved in something like that again. My life is upside down, my family has suffered a lot and what it costs me that all those involved in the complaints … none were in preventive detention, “said the defendant in the trial that took place about two years ago in the Central Court of the Penal of Lisbon.
Speaking to the panel of judges for the first time since the trial began, Rui Pinto acknowledged that “mistakes were made” in the Football Leaks project, although he highlighted the “great benefits” for society with the disclosure of “information that would otherwise be it would be not to have been known”.
“Money was solving things and I was the only person who was deprived of liberty, I was deprived of liberty for a year and a half. It was several months in isolation, with only weekly contact with the family, ”she said, too. mentioning the case of Luanda. Leaks: “It had a great national and international repercussion, but Isabel dos Santos continues to live her life in peace in Dubai and there is no arrest warrant hanging on her.”
The creator of the platform, who exposed many documents related to Portuguese and international football clubs, also recalled his collaboration with the authorities, in particular the French authorities, while criticizing the main law firms, whom he described as “artificers of the increased money laundering and tax fraud”. and he criticized the use of attorney-client secrecy to protect the commission of crimes.
“I understand that I can’t change things, I can’t change the world. It has to be the authorities. Despite this, I did not stop trying to fight for transparency, including collaboration with the authorities. The most decisive collaboration was with the French. authorities, who have constantly shown a great desire to have my help,” she stressed.
At the same time, Rui Pinto also assumed his contribution on the Ukrainian side in the war with Russia in the technological aspect.
“We have been handing over information to the Ukrainian intelligence services. We have been analyzing surveillance images at strategic sites and also intercepting radio communications used by the Russian military. All of this is ‘open source intelligence.’ As one Ukrainian soldier put it, ‘ Our luck are very stupid,'” he said.
Rui Pinto, 33, is responsible for a total of 90 crimes: 68 of improper access, 14 of violation of correspondence, six of illegitimate access, directed at entities such as Sporting, Doyen, the PLMJ law firm, the Portuguese Federation de Fútbol (FPF) and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), as well as for computer sabotage of Sporting’s SAD and for extortion, in the form of an attempt. This last crime concerns Doyen and was the one that also motivated the accusation of the lawyer Aníbal Pinto.
The creator of Football Leaks has been free since August 7, 2020, “for his collaboration” with the Judicial Police (PJ) and his “critical sense”, but he is, for security reasons, included in the protection of witnesses in a undisclosed location. and under police protection.
Source: TSF
