It was as if an episode of a series had ended in the moment of greatest suspense. In the specific case of the 22nd session of the Football Leaks trial that took place this Thursday, it was actually several episodes leaving the story in the middle.
Former Doyen administrator, Nélio Lucas, delivered his clean record, but Rui Pinto’s defense wants to collect records that will have already been deleted – now, you have to wait for the court to ask for the full criminal record. The judges then spent several minutes deciding whether a trial could be email exchanged between Doyen’s lawyer and Nélio Lucas’ right arm – it may be, but it won’t be for now. Finally, at a time when Rui Pinto’s lawyers started asking the former Doyen administrator about his companies, the court interrupted the testimony because the afternoon was already long – now, Nélio Lucas will not be heard again until November 24th because you want to return to London and will have to comply with mandatory quarantine due to Covid-19.
Early in the morning, the former Doyen administrator – who is being heard for the second consecutive day – voluntarily handed over his criminal record in court, but it was not enough for Rui Pinto’s defense. Is that Nélio Lucas provided two clean criminal records (English with data until 2016 and Portuguese until 2019), but lawyers for the alleged hacker want to know if there are crimes that have already been on the criminal record but have been deleted definitely because some time has passed and deadlines defined in Portugal by the Definitive Cancellation Law have been exceeded.
The lawyer representing Doyen, Sofia Ribeiro Branco, clarified that the fact that Nélio Lucas delivered his criminal record “it is not a defense of honor“, But“ a counterproof ”of what was claimed in Rui Pinto’s defense. In that document, defendant Rui Pinto said that Nélio Lucas, “whom the MP so trusts and relies on, has a criminal record that includes the commission of various crimes, which did not even allow him to be an intermediary in the transfer of players registered with the Portuguese Football Federation due to lack of suitability ”.
The businessman Nélio Lucas has been heard for two consecutive days (André Luís Alves / Global Imagens)
In March 2000, the entrepreneur will have been caught drive without a license and paid a fine of 319 euros, the Expresso was already writing in 2016 (print version). That same year, in November 2000, Nélio Lucas will have passed two checks without cover and he would pay two fines: 600 and 720 euros. In 2002, the entrepreneur will have committed a tax offense for which he was tried in 2005 and would pay a fine of 1,190 euros, two years later.
In this sense, Rui Pinto’s defense demanded a complete registration, with lawyer Francisco Teixeira da Mota recalling that “The court has to apply for registration, to record criminal records that have been canceled by the time record ”. Before even asking for any documentation, the court will still decide whether to do so.
The first hour of the afternoon session was occupied with a discussion on a email that lawyer representing Doyen in this case, Sofia Ribeiro Branco, would have exchanged with the lawyer Pedro Henriques, Nélio Lucas’ right-hand man. When Aníbal Pinto’s lawyer, Amílcar Fernandes, asked the court to show this email to the witness and then ask questions, the lawyer Sofia Ribeiro Branco put the brakes on: explained to the judges that this email could not be displayed and appreciated at the trial, under penalty of violation of professional secrecy – despite being in the process. On the other side of the bench, Rui Pinto and Aníbal Pinto’s lawyers accused their colleague of denying the right of defense.
Nélio Lucas accompanied by his lawyer Sofia Ribeiro Branco on arrival at the court (André Luís Alves / Global Imagens)
In view of this tie of arguments, it was up to the court to decide whether or not to show email. After the judges had been away from the room for several minutes, they made the decision and informed everyone present. Briefly, the email can be shown, but not for now.
It is that, as explained by the judge-president, Margarida Alves, “all the evidence indicated in the indictment by the Public Prosecutor’s Office can be analyzed”, including this email. And he remembered that already “several times” were shown emails exchanged by the defendants, one of them a lawyer by profession ”, Aníbal Pinto. The court based itself on the principle of equality to decide that the email it must be displayed, but it should not be shown to Nélio Lucas since he was not the one who sent or received it. “It makes no sense that with this email witness Nélio Lucas be confronted since he is not the author of the same ”, said the judge.
So the email may only be shown to lawyer Pedro Henriques, who was also listed as a witness and who is yet to be heard at this trial. When? Only after the testimony of Nélio Lucas was finished.
It was almost 5:00 pm when Rui Pinto’s defense came to ask Nélio Lucas the questions – predicting that the testimony would not end this Thursday. Not just by the hours, but by the type of questions. The lawyer Francisco Teixeira da Mota seems to want to comb the companies linked to Nélio Lucas: who were the partners, where were the headquarters, how many employees had or where were their employees. The lawyer even asked him to describe Doyen’s office in Malta. Nélio Lucas answered, but his memory failed him when Teixiera da Mota asked the names of his secretary and one of the directors of Doyen.
There’s a secretary who didn’t know who she was. There was a director who doesn’t know who he was… ”, commented Rui Pinto’s lawyer.
But it was when Teixeira da Mota started asking questions about Energy Soccer, a company owned by the son of the FCP president, that the court stopped the testimony because the afternoon was already long. Now, Nélio Lucas will only be heard again on November 24 because you want to return to London and will have to comply with mandatory quarantine due to Covid-19.
From private investigation to Rui Pinto to partner with “clean money”. Nélio Lucas is not the center of the case, but it stirred the court
The trial continues on Tuesday with the hearing of several witnesses listed by the Public Ministry: one of them, the president of the Portuguese Football Federation, Fernando Gomes, will be heard by videoconference.
Rui Pinto, the main defendant, is responsible for 90 crimes – all related to the fact that you have accessed the computer systems and mailboxes emails people linked to Sporting, Doyen, the PLMJ law firm, the Portuguese Football Federation, the Bar Association and the PGR. Among those targeted are Jorge Jesus, Bruno de Carvalho, then director of DCIAP Amadeu Guerra or lawyer José Miguel Júdice. Thus, 68 are 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, his lawyer at the time of the alleged crimes, is responsible for the crime of attempted extortion because he will have served as an intermediary for Rui Pinto in the alleged extortion attempt on Doyen. And that is why they both sit side by side, in front of the panel of judges.
Rui Pinto. The boy with the “spiky hair” who was already on the school computers before he was Football Leaks’ John
The alleged hacker has been in preventive detention since March 22, 2019 and was placed under house arrest on April 8 of this year, in a house provided by the PJ. Following a request made by the defendant’s defense, the judge Margarida Alves, president of the panel of judges – who is judging Rui Pinto and who has Judges Ana Paula Conceição and Pedro Lucas as assistant – decided to release him. The alleged hacker left PJ’s premises in early August and his current address is unknown.
