Former Sporting sport director Octávio Machado confessed on Wednesday that he was “hurt” by the suspicions he said were raised by accessing his email, at the hearing held in the 12th session of the ‘Football Leaks’ trial.
Former Sporting sport director Octávio Machado confessed on Wednesday that he was “hurt” by the suspicions he said were raised by accessing his email, at the hearing held at the 12th session of the ‘Football Leaks’ trial.
“I felt hurt when I had the feeling that someone might suspect that I might have done something illegal,” said the former footballer ‘Leonino’, adding: “I felt violated in my right to privacy and that I was suspicious for any citizen. This shocked me deeply and I will not admit it to anyone “.
Octávio Machado admitted that he used the electronic mailbox little and that he only learned that someone accessed the email when he was informed by the authorities of this situation. At the same time, the former ‘Leonino’ manager had difficulties in identifying some documents in court that were published in 2015 on the platform created by Rui Pinto, recognizing only a compromise agreement between Sporting and the Peruvian player Andre Carrillo.
Asked by the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) about the computer attack on the Alvalade club and the impact caused by the disclosure of documents on the Internet, Octávio Machado was somewhat surprised and stressed “he never” thought anyone “had an interest” in his computer. “I never thought it had the dimension it came to, but it didn’t affect me and I wasn’t too concerned,” he noted.
Still in the morning at the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon, the panel of judges also heard witnesses Rui Caeiro and Paulo Antunes, who were part of Sporting’s SAD.
Rui Caeiro, who also served as a member of the club’s Board of Directors, was confronted with four documents by the MP and had difficulties in recognizing that they had gone through his email. In effect, the former leader only identified a document that “most likely” would have passed through his mailbox because he had his signature.
Paulo Antunes, former non-executive director of SAD ‘leonina’, assumed with “absolute certainty” that he did not change his email password and that it was only used for matters related to the club. “I only knew that there would have been access to my email when the Judiciary Police called me,” admitted the lawyer. The trial continues in the afternoon with the hearing of witnesses Augusto Inácio, Vicente Moura and José Laranjeira.
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, 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 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.
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