Former director of the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP), Amadeu Guerra, said this Wednesday in the trial of the ‘Football Leaks’ case that the organization has always refused to investigate based on information obtained illegally.
Heard as a witness at the 15th session of the trial that takes place at the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon, the retired magistrate of the Public Ministry (MP) stressed in the face of Rui Pinto’s defense lawyers that this has always been the line of action while led the judiciary body between March 2013 and January 2019.
“While I was at DCIAP, we did not consider the relative aspects of information obtained illegally,” said Amadeu Guerra, opposing the collaboration between the creator of the platform and the authorities. At the same time, the former director of the DCIAP admitted that “there are several cases investigated in relation to clubs and players”, but without ever confirming whether these actions were based on the complaints of ‘Football Leaks’.
Asked by Judge Margarida Alves if – like what happened in other countries – she was aware of investigations by the tax authorities based on the data released by the electronic platform created by Rui Pinto, Amadeu Guerra was again unclear: “I don’t know if the Tax Authority if you used any of this information, I know there are inquiries. “
The principal defendant’s lawyer, Francisco Teixeira da Mota, also confronted the former DCIAP official with the apparently small number of football-related inquiries that effectively resulted in accusations, especially given the creation in 2018 of a special team with three magistrates to follow. this area. However, the retired prosecutor claimed to have disconnected himself from the football process when he left DCIAP.
“It said [aos magistrados]: ‘Investigate as soon as possible, investigate everything you have to investigate, and, if you need the means, ask. I do not want to know what is in the processes, I am known as a benfiquista and I do not want to be involved in this matter ‘”, he recalled, having clarified that the DCIAP did not concentrate all the processes of football, as some went to the Department of Investigation and Action (DIAP) of Lisbon and Porto.
The words of the ex-director of the DCIAP appeared in the final stretch of about three hours of testimony, essentially marked by the verification of more than a hundred documents taken from the devices apprehended to Rui Pinto and presented by the MP, from files that could be in the Public Prosecutor’s Information System (SIMP) or even Amadeu Guerra’s own electronic mailbox, where there were 53,749 emails at that time.
Among the information allegedly accessed by the creator of ‘Football Leaks’, to whom the accusation is attributed 307 accesses to the computer system of the Attorney General’s Office, Amadeu Guerra confirmed that there were several cases “in secret, such as the Tancos case, BES or Operation Marquis “.
The former director of DCIAP also acknowledged that he accessed his email from home, because “he was convinced it was safe”. However, he assured that there were stories that he preferred to talk to people in person instead of exchanging emails. “All of us, regarding aspects that have to do with more sensitive activity, such as investigative strategies, we did not exchange via computer: we talked directly. But we exchanged emails about processes that were secret from justice,” he noted.
With the end of the hearing for Amadeu Guerra, the trial continues on Thursday from 9:30 am, with the hearing of witnesses related to the PLMJ law firm.
Rui Pinto, 31, is responsible for a total of 90 crimes: 68 of undue access, 14 of violation of correspondence, six of illegitimate access, targeting entities such as Sporting, Doyen, the PLMJ law firm, the Portuguese Federation of Football (FPF) and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), 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 Judiciary Police (PJ) and his “critical sense”, but is, for security reasons, part of the protection program for witnesses in an undisclosed location and under police protection.
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