Portuguese hacker Rui Pinto told a Lisbon court at the opening of his trial on Friday (4) that his “Football Leaks” (“leaks from football”, in which he reports crimes related to sport) are “a reason for pride and not ashamed “.
Portuguese hacker Rui Pinto told a Lisbon court at the opening of his trial on Friday (4) that his “Football Leaks” (“leaks from football”, in which he reports crimes related to sport) are “a reason for pride and not ashamed “.
“I was outraged by what I found out and decided to make it public,” said the 31-year-old in a brief statement at the beginning of a trial that is expected to last several months.
“My job as a whistleblower is over,” he added, his face covered with a sanitary mask. “I never did anything for money.”
The documents that Rui Pinto hacked and released to news organizations such as “Football Leaks”, organized from the end of 2015, brought to light revelations from the world of football.
Published by a media consortium, the European Investigative Collaborations, these disclosures exposed tax evasion mechanisms, suspected fraud and corruption involving several European clubs, managers and stars such as the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, the French Paul Pogba, the Argentine Lionel Messi and the English David Beckham.
90 charges against the hacker
Pinto faces 90 charges, including a series of computer crimes and, more seriously, an attempt at blackmail against Doyen Sports, an investment fund, which sparked the investigation by filing a complaint in October 2015. In Portugal, the extortion attempt can be punished with up to 10 years in prison.
His lawyers insist he is “a very important European whistleblower” and plan to call 45 witnesses, including Edward Snowden, a former American intelligence official accused of spying, and former French financial judge Eva Joly.
After leaking the hacked documents in 2016, Pinto fled Portugal and took refuge in Hungary, where he spent four years before being tracked and extradited to Portugal in March 2019.
Upon his return, he was placed in preventive detention for one year. He was granted the right to house arrest after cooperating with Portuguese prosecutors, giving them access to a large number of encrypted documents that have not yet been published.
(With AFP information)
