Speaking at the lunch break of the first session of the trial, which takes place at the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon, the lawyer – who also has the lawyer William Bourdon in the defense team of the creator of Football Leaks – declined to comment on “pending cases” and recalled that “judgment is made inside the courtroom”.
However, Francisco Teixeira da Mota highlighted the presentation of the National Strategy to Combat Corruption, by the Minister of Justice, Francisca Van Dunem, considering the declarations of the governor “important” for the fight against corruption.
“In this country, there is still a regime that, in many aspects, has to be changed in terms of fighting corruption and criminal justice,” said Rui Pinto’s lawyer, adding: “As is evident, there have already been many people who protested , because there are many interests that have no interest in fighting corruption ”.
The measures of the national strategy were presented on Thursday in Lisbon by the Minister of Justice, Francisca van Dunem, who stressed that the “key to the problem” to face corruption lies in prevention, as it is understood that the repressive system, however sophisticated that is, it is “insufficient to seriously reduce the phenomenon”.
Asked about the regime for the protection of whistleblowers, on the eve of the start of the trial of Rui Pinto, creator of the Football Leaks platform and who denounced the Luanda Leaks case, Francisca vab Dunem indicated that the regime is provided for within the framework of the European Union and consists of a directive that Portugal will have to transpose into national law.
“This regime is based on the assumption that the whistleblower is part of an organization and has knowledge of the (unlawful) facts due to his activity in that organization and, as a result, through the appropriate whistleblowing channels, make the complaint”, said the minister, referring that, therefore, “this is not exactly the situation” with which she was confronted in the question about the applicability of that regime to the accused and whistleblower of Football Leaks Rui Pinto.
Rui Pinto, 31, will answer for a total of 90 crimes: 68 of undue access, 14 of violation of correspondence and 6 of illegitimate access, targeting entities such as Sporting, Doyen, PLMJ law firm, Portuguese Football Federation and the Attorney General’s Office, and also for computer sabotage to Sporting’s SAD and for extortion, in the attempted form. This last crime concerns Doyen and was also what led to the pronunciation of the lawyer Aníbal Pinto.
The creator of Football Leaks has been free since August 7, “due to his collaboration” with the Judicial Police (PJ) and his “critical sense”, but is, for security reasons, inserted in the protection program of witnesses in an undisclosed location and under police protection.
JYGO / AO (FC / JGS) // PFO
