The defense of Francisco J. Marques, communication director of FC Porto, assured this Monday that he will appeal against the conditional sentence of one year and ten months in prison in the case of the disclosure of emails from Benfica.
“We are in the first part, there will be a second part that will be the natural resource of the relationship. There may be an extension that will be a complaint before the European court of human rights”, said the lawyer Nuno Brandão, after reading the sentence, in the Criminal Center Court of Lisbon.
The group of judges also imposed a sentence of nine months in prison, with a conditional sentence of one year, for violation of correspondence or telecommunications, to Diogo Faria, content director of Porto Canal, acquitting Júlio Magalhães of all crimes, who in At the time of the events, he was the director of Porto Canal.
Admitting that he was speaking on behalf of the defenders of Diogo Faria and Júlio Magalhães, the lawyer highlighted the fact that “the accusation and the pronunciation had fallen on the vast majority”, which, he added, “shows that they were clearly inflated”.
“Naturally, there were two or three charges left that deserve our disagreement,” the lawyer said, adding: “I think that several things were recognized in this case, namely, the veracity of the information in the content of the emails that were disclosed. It was also acknowledged that apart from one case we disagree with, most of the emails were published without any manipulation.”
Francisco J. Marques and Diogo Faria will also have to pay compensation of ten thousand euros to Luís Filipe Vieira, former president of Benfica, who became an assistant in the process.
“We will see if, in the end, there will be a place for the payment of compensation. Naturally, we will appeal and challenge this sentence, especially since Mr. Luís Filipe Vieira did not file a complaint, he is not even offended.” in this process, “he said and added:” All this is a mega-process, but the mountain gave birth to a mouse.
On Benfica’s side, assistant in the process, the lawyer Rui Patrício considered it positive that there was a conviction, and admitted that he will consider a possible appeal after analyzing the sentence.
“Sentences are not measured in months or years. For us, the important thing was that there was a conviction and that what was recognized was recognized: first, it was criminal and unjustifiable conduct, second, there was manipulation of information and third, there was a lie,” said the lawyer.
João Medeiros, who also represented Benfica, stated that “the sentence satisfies the defense of the representatives of Benfica”, and added: “Deep down, we did not expect that in a process of this nature there would be effective sentences, to we the important thing. The important thing is that the corruption narrative falls to the ground, and that narrative did.
“The rivalry is healthy, the rivalry between clubs is healthy and that is what causes the overcoming, now the rivalry cannot be at any price. What this ruling confirms is that not everything goes”, said João Medeiros.
Francisco J. Marques was sanctioned with ten months in prison for aggravated correspondence or telecommunications violation, and another year and two months for crime against the legal person, being, in legal terms, a sentence of one year and 10 months, also suspended. .
The case of the disclosure of emails dates back to 2017 and 2018, with communications between elements linked to the Benfica structure and third parties to be revealed in the program ‘Universo Porto – da Benfica, in Porto Canal, and began to be tried in September 16, 2022.
Source: TSF
