The head of the Cybercrime Combat Unit (UNC3T) of the Judiciary Police (PJ) today considered “unprofessional” the attitude of inspector Aida Freitas, who, in the trial of the case ‘Football Leaks’, assumed that she signed an investigation report without reading .
I make a very strange interpretation of the inspector’s attitude, unprofessional, to say the least”, said Carlos Cabreiro at the hearing held at the 35th session of the trial, at the Central Court of Criminal Instruction, in Lisbon, adding: “It’s not common and in 29 years of career [na PJ] I have never seen an episode of this nature. I can not realize”.
At issue is the fact that the PJ inspector stated in court, last January, that she signed without reading the External Diligence Report (RDE) of the surveillance operation of the meeting between the former CEO of the Doyen investment fund, Nélio Lucas, and the employee Pedro Henriques with the defendant Aníbal Pinto, in the service area of the A5 motorway, in Oeiras, on October 22, 2015, and who was also not responsible for its preparation.
Stressing that he learned of the inspector’s testimony through the media, the unit’s coordinator also expressed his surprise at this situation, assuring that Aida Freitas had taken a different position when she was informed that she would testify in this process.
It wasn’t a meeting, there was a conversation. She was informed that she was going to be listed as a witness, because she had had a punctual intervention. This is what I always do when notifications reach the secretariat and I notify the inspectors. What is normal is for people to remember the acts in which they participated, there was no prior preparation”, began by explaining Carlos Cabreira, continuing: “She said, ‘If I don’t remember, I’ll refer you to the file I signed.’ I can’t know what the motivation is. [da inspetora]”.
Following the testimony of Aida Freitas, the court decided, after a request from the Public Ministry (MP), to extract in January a certificate to investigate the inspector for alleged falsity of document and false statements. Carlos Cabreiro then added that this testimony deserved an intervention within the PJ.
It was one of the concerns of the national director [da PJ, Luís Neves]. He anticipated and informed me that he was going to carry out a disciplinary investigation”, revealed, without failing to emphasize that the inspector changed units in 2018 “by request”, but after having verified too “some tension with the bosses”.
Before Carlos Cabreiro’s hearing, the court also heard the testimonies of the other witnesses listed by the defendant Aníbal Pinto, namely his wife, Sofia Gandra, his adopted daughter, Cátia Pinto, and the lawyer António Ferreira de Cima, who even chaired the council. deontology of Porto of the Portuguese Bar Association.
In this testimony, the statement that a lawyer “has the obligation to identify the customer” before a professional colleague with whom he has to interact, and Aníbal Pinto never came to identify Rui Pinto as his constituent before Doyen at the meeting that took place in October 2015 in the service area of the A5 motorway. However, António Ferreira de Cima admitted that “there are situations that are outside this rule”.
On the other hand, he relativized the fact that Aníbal Pinto wanted to submit the payment of his fees to the representatives of the investment fund and not to the creator of ‘Football Leaks’. “It’s not very common. However, there have already been situations of this nature and, if the parties agree that one party pays the other party’s fees, it is legitimate”, summarized.
The trial continues on the 21st, with the hearing of the former responsible of the computer system of Doyen, Jake Hockley, starting the next day the hearing of witnesses for the defense of Rui Pinto in this case.
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 is, for security reasons, included in the program of witness protection in an undisclosed location and under police protection.
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