The start of the trial of Rui Pinto, creator of Football Leaks, scheduled for next Friday, marks the return of justice after the judicial holidays and puts the focus of Portuguese society in the debate on the status of whistleblower.
The start of the trial of Rui Pinto, creator of Football Leaks, scheduled for next Friday, marks the return of justice after the judicial holidays and puts the focus of Portuguese society in the debate on the status of whistleblower.
‘Hero’ for some, for exposing alleged illegal practices and potential tax avoidance schemes on the Internet by big names and football institutions, ‘villain’ for others, for having illegally accessed private computer systems: this is the media polarization created around from a young man of 31 years who attended the University of Porto for a degree in History and became self-taught in terms of computer skills.
The ‘Rui Pinto case’ is unparalleled in the recent history of Portuguese justice and has sparked an international debate on the concept of ‘whistleblower’ (whistleblower) and the balance between the right to reserve people and companies and the alleged public interest in the information obtained through the Football Leaks platform.
The defense of the website creator – in charge of lawyers William Bourdon (who has already represented whistleblowers like Edward Snowden or Antoine Deltour), Francisco Teixeira da Mota and Luísa Teixeira da Mota – invokes in his arguments the inclusion of the defendant on the protection of whistleblowers, a regime on which the European Parliament adopted a directive in April 2019 and which the Portuguese State has yet to transpose into national legislation.
This legislation – the first at European level on the protection of whistleblowers – applies to people who wish to raise awareness of possible violations of European Union law in several areas, including money laundering, tax fraud, public procurement, security products and transport, environmental protection, public health, consumer protection and personal data protection.
Supporting the thesis of Rui Pinto’s representatives – in which the public interest in the information disclosed outweighs the seriousness of the alleged illicit acts – is the collaboration with the judicial authorities of France, Belgium and the Netherlands as a whistleblower until his arrest, and which was confirmed by Eurojust, the European Judicial Cooperation Unit, with the provision of information and documents in its possession.
At the same time, in the list of 45 witnesses listed by the young Portuguese, there are several names with no known connection to the facts contained in the process, but which may reveal the public interest of the information exposed. Among the witnesses are the North American whistleblower Edward Snowden, former MEP Ana Gomes, the director of the Judiciary Police (PJ), Luís Neves, or Angolan journalist and activist Rafael Marques.
On the other hand, there is the prosecution of the Public Ministry (MP), who also opposed the release of Rui Pinto on August 7, after being under house arrest since April 8, 2020 and more than a year in pre-trial detention. Prosecutor Marta Viegas, the Public Prosecutor who will be present at the trial, defended the maintenance of the coercion measure to stay in the home, with a ban on accessing the Internet and devices that allow it.
At issue would be article 204 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which provides for danger of escape, danger for the preservation or veracity of evidence, danger of continuation of criminal activity or serious disturbance of public order and tranquility as reasons to justify the deprivation of freedom. However, Judge Margarida Alves justified the release with “continuous and consistent collaboration” with the PJ and the “critical sense” of the creator of Football Leaks.
Rui Pinto starts to be tried on September 4th for 90 crimes: 68 of undue access, 14 of violation of correspondence, six of illegitimate access and also for computer sabotage to Sporting’s SAD and for attempted extortion to the Doyen investment fund.
Aníbal Pinto, Rui Pinto’s lawyer at the time of the facts, will be tried for the extortion attempt on Doyen. Rui Pinto, creator of the Football Leaks platform and also responsible for the Luanda Leaks process, in which the Angolan Isabel dos Santos is the main target, is at liberty, and is now inserted in the witness protection program in an undisclosed location and under protection police, for security reasons.
In early June, the Lisbon Court of Appeal dismissed the MP’s appeal and upheld the instructive decision, handed down on January 17, which pronounced (brought to trial) Rui Pinto for 90 crimes and not the 147 that were in the prosecution of the MP.
In September 2019, the MP accused Rui Pinto of 147 crimes, 75 of which were illegitimate access, 70 of violation of correspondence, one of computer sabotage and one of extortion attempt, for accessing the computer systems of Sporting, Doyen, da PLMJ law firm, the Portuguese Football Federation and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
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