Former MEP Ana Gomes took office today in the trial of the ‘Football Leaks’ case that encouraged Rui Pinto to collaborate with the Court and argued that the defendant’s change of attitude was not “to save his skin”.
“At the first time [que estive com ele], I found him very angry and reluctant to any collaboration with the police. Little by little, his position evolved through contact with the authorities, but I think I also helped him. At least, I always encouraged collaboration with the justice. It was, in effect, through the police that he could achieve the desire for truth and justice that motivated him,” said the former diplomat and presidential candidate.
And he continued: “Little by little it changed. And that wasn’t to save his skin, but because he thought it was the way to fight corruption and criminality schemes.”
Heard as a defense witness for the creator of ‘Football Leaks’ at the 41st session of the trial underway at the Central Criminal Court in Lisbon, Ana Gomes began by remembering her work in the European Parliament in the name of greater fiscal justice. About the emergence of ‘Football Leaks’, he said that Rui Pinto’s action initially appeared to be driven “by the passion for football and for his club, FC Porto”, but that it ended up transcending this area.
“As he found rubbish, he became aware that it was something much bigger than football. From the moment he has contact with Der Spiegel journalists, he becomes aware of its importance,” he said.
According to her testimony, Ana Gomes said that she had visited Rui Pinto in prison “four or five times”, having even met the father and sister of the main defendant in the ‘Football Leaks’ case. In personal terms, he highlighted the positive impression he made of the young man, after the lawyer William Bourdon revealed that it was the Portuguese that was at the origin of the electronic platform that stirred world football from 2015 onwards.
“I formed the idea and the appreciation corresponded to what [o advogado] William Bourdon gave it to me right from the start: he was young, candid, cultured and I was very impressed. He seemed to me an extraordinarily cultured young man,” he declared, not forgetting Rui Pinto’s later role in the disclosure of the ‘Luanda Leaks’ case, which came in line with previous complaints that Ana Gomes made publicly in relation to the activity of Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Saints.
“Long before ‘Luanda Leaks’ I started asking questions to European and national authorities about the Efacec case. And in 2016 I made a presentation to all national and European authorities about Isabel dos Santos’ fortune based on open sources,” he said , summarizing: “I publicly said that Banco BIC was a ‘laundry’. (…) With ‘Luanda Leaks’, the Portuguese authorities could no longer pretend that nothing existed.”
Rui Pinto, 32, is responsible for a total of 90 crimes: 68 of improper access, 14 of violation of correspondence, six of illegitimate access, targeting entities such as Sporting, Doyen, the law firm PLMJ, the Portuguese Federation of Football (FPF) and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), and also for computer sabotage to Sporting’s SAD and extortion, as attempted. This last crime concerns Doyen and it was also what led to the prosecution of 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 he is, for security reasons, included in the protection program for witnesses in an undisclosed location and under police protection.
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