Rui Pinto revealed in court on Monday that he was actively cooperating with French authorities and that he would be going to France at the time of his arrest in Budapest, under the witness protection program.
In the fourth session of the Football Leaks trial, at the Lisbon Central Criminal Court, the creator of the electronic platform explained in detail the steps leading up to his arrest, on January 16, 2019, revealing this collaboration with the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP ) Frans, who received information from investigated cases.
“I gave a ‘pen drive’ to the French prosecutors with information so they could understand what I had in my possession. I also met elements of the French police special team on the witness protection program. My life in Budapest and beyond a date was planned for me to go to French territory”started by explaining the Portuguese complainant.
These contacts took place from 2018, when Rui Pinto hired French lawyer William Bourdon to assist him in this collaboration, although there has been interest from French authorities “since late 2016 or early 2017,” he said.
“The French MP’s prosecutors were very happy with the preliminary information I gave them and they asked for more. I arranged a meeting with my lawyer where this information would be passed on. At the beginning of December 2018, the second wave of football took place. about leaks, they completely shocked Europe”Rui Pinto continued.
Asked why he was cooperating with the French authorities, rather than with the Portuguese authorities, Rui Pinto said he had intended to do so since he arrived in Portugal, but he received “too many death threats” and did not feel safe. : “I did not trust the Portuguese authorities and the episodes related to Chief Inspector Rogério Bravo gave me a reason. On the other hand, the authorities of other countries were always more interested in this information”.
“I was in pre-trial detention and the Portuguese authorities did not show any kind of openness to this cooperation, because they thought they had everything under control. They did not know what, months later, would come with Luanda Leaks. I presented my critical mind, I changed my point of view and the MP changed his a bit too,” Rui Pinto replied.
The complainant also explained how he was able to access the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), after saying that he had been given access to the mailbox of the former director of the Central Department for Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP), Amadeu Guerra, to try to find the judicial source. of some journalistic pieces about the disclosure of Benfica’s e-mails.
“Saturday magazine ran an article that collected a lot of lies and added judicial sources. This judicial source could be a judicial police inspector or someone at DCIAP, but unfortunately I never managed to get there,” he added.
For Rui Pinto, “Amadeu Guerra’s priority was to catch the football hacker”, as he is a “Benfi supporter”: “Processes where he was suspected became the priority of this team. All sports corruption investigations went into the background and, in 2022 they are noted to be in a drawer and there is nothing new. I think this special team was a real ‘flop’ as they only showed results in trials against me, otherwise they showed no results”.
Rui Pinto, 34 years old, is responsible for a total of 90 crimes: 68 of improper access, 14 of breach of correspondence, six of illegal access, targeting entities such as Sporting, Doyen, the law firm PLMJ, the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), and also for computer sabotage of Sporting’s SAD and for extortion, in attempted form. This latest crime concerns Doyen and also led to the indictment of lawyer Aníbal Pinto.
The creator of Football Leaks has been at large since August 7, 2020, “for his collaboration” with the Judicial Police (PJ) and his “critical sense”, but has been placed under witness protection at an undisclosed location and under police protection for security reasons. .
Source: DN
