The creator of the electronic platform Football Leaks, Rui Pinto, admitted this Monday at the closing of the final arguments of the trial that he violated the law, but reiterated his regret, valuing the learning of recent years.
Urged by the group of judges to exercise his right to speak after the intervention of his defense and the responses of the attendees, the 34-year-old main defendant in the case pointed out that his lawyer, Francisco Teixeira da Mota, had already addressed the essential. concentrating, therefore, only on the question of his repentance.
“The Public Ministry and the lawyers are wrong if they consider that there is no sincere repentance on my part. I will not say that my life has been destroyed, because I am still alive and while there is life, there is hope… the law, clearly. Nothing justifies breaching lawyers’ mailboxes, lawyers have the right to professional secrecy, despite the repercussions of the Luanda Leaks,” he said.
Recalling his arrest in Budapest, in January 2019, and more than a year in which he was in pretrial detention, Rui Pinto was asked by the investigating judge, Margarida Alves, if his regret stemmed from what had happened to him or the effects caused on the other participants in the process, something that the defendant made an effort to oppose.
“That’s not where my regret comes from. This is something that I am building, we continue to grow and I have learned a lot. It is not a consequence of being deprived of my freedom. Today I am aware that I have not had it for years… I am a complex of character”, said Rui Pinto in the session held at the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon.
Then, the other defendant in this case, Aníbal Pinto, chose to speak for the last time before the group of judges to reaffirm his conduct throughout the entire process, reiterating the honesty of his actions against the crime of attempted extortion by Who is responsible in this judgment?
“Throughout more than 60 years of life, I have never committed any crime,” said Rui Pinto’s former lawyer, and continued: “For the sake of my defense, I want it to be clear that at no time was my behavior criminally reprehensible “. .
The interventions of the two defendants closed the final arguments of the trial, scheduling the group of judges to read the sentence for April 28, at 10:00 a.m. However, Margarida Alves assumed the possibility of insubstantial changes in the facts and the legal classification, which could still lead to a postponement of the sentence, if the parties in the process consider additional measures necessary.
Rui Pinto, 34, is responsible for a total of 90 crimes: 68 for improper access, 14 for violation of correspondence, six for 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 pronunciation of the lawyer Aníbal Pinto.
The creator of Football Leaks has been free since August 7, 2020, “due to his collaboration” with the Judicial Police (PJ) and his “critical sense”, but he is, for security reasons, included in witness protection in a undisclosed location. and under police protection.
Source: TSF
