“It was never something that gave great importance, nor do I know what I’m doing here“, said the current Benfica coach, during the 14th session of the trial, which takes place at the Criminal Court of Lisbon.
Given this statement, the panel of judges reminded the coach, who had difficulty specifying the period during which he coached Sporting, who was listed as a witness by the Public Ministry, the defense and assistants.
In court, Jorge Jesus said he did not know that he had an email account at Sporting, which, according to the indictment, Rui Pinto illegally accessed.
“I didn’t even know I had an email account at Sporting. I don’t know if Sporting created this account for me. If he did, I had no knowledge“, said Jorge Jesus, adding:”If I used (the account)? No, neither at Benfica, nor at Sporting“.
The coach, who was at Sporting between 2015 and 2018, but referred to the team having coached the “lions” between 2014 and 2016, said that the disclosure of the contract never worried him, because he doesn’t have “nothing to hide“.
“(Disclosure) I didn’t worry, I have nothing to hide, nor did I value it. For me, it never created instability, and there was nothing there that wasn’t true. I don’t know what the disclosure did to Sporting, I’m a football coach“he stated.
Rui Pinto, creator of the electronic platform “Football Leaks”, through which thousands of confidential documents from the world of football and alleged tax evasion schemes committed in several countries were released, is accused of 90 crimes.
The defendant, 31 years old, 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.
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