The inspector of the Judiciary Police (PJ) José Miguel Amador said this Thursday, in the fourth session of the trial, that the meeting at the service station proved to be “vital” for the identification of Rui Pinto, creator of the Football Leaks platform.
The conversation at that meeting turned out to be vitally important. Descriptions will have been made about the suspect, his physical characteristics. It was essentially relevant, because it already had a background in previous investigations.”, he stressed, explaining that “the inquiries had been in the Northern Board and concerned the IT infrastructure of the Caledonian Bank”.
In 2013, Rui Pinto was the only one suspected of embezzling around 264,000 euros from the Caledonian Bank, after accessing the computer system of the banking institution based in the Cayman Islands. The criminal investigation was filed by the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action of Porto, in October 2014, following an extrajudicial agreement between the young man and the bank.
José Miguel Amador, a researcher at the PJ’s cybercrime unit since May 2010, said that Rui Pinto was already known to him and that there was “a connection point” in the “concrete descriptions” and in the “series of objective elements in the records”.
The inspector admitted that he was physically present, but from a distance, at the meeting at the service station on the A5 motorway, in Oeiras, between Nélio Lucas, legal representative of Doyen Sports, and Aníbal Pinto, then Rui Pinto’s lawyer, who acted as an intermediary, it was not possible to record the image and audio, as the magistrate of the Public Ministry (MP) did not authorize it.
The investigation, which lasted five years, began with three complaints, filed by Doyen, Sporting and Nélio Lucas, which contained “elements in common”, with the inspector explaining that the complaint by Doyen’s legal representative was centered on in “communications from an unknown email”, from a person who presented himself as the “responsible for the dissemination of the contents” on the Football Leaks platform and who was available “to reach an agreement, against a generous offer”, among half a million and one million euros.
José Miguel Amador referred before the panel of judges, chaired by Margarida Alves, that the lawyer Pedro Henriques emerged as “a close support”, not being very clear in explaining how and why he had access to the office between the PJ and Yandex, the Russian operator that needed to be reached to discover the origin of the emails.
The suspect would have been aware of the letter between the PJ and Yandex. It was later realized that it was Dr. Pedro Henriques’ electronics”, he stressed, adding: “It will have been shared with Dr. Pedro Henriques to expedite the arrival in Russia. We didn’t propose, it was a request, I don’t have direct knowledge. It is not a habit for the PJ to do this.”
The questioning of inspector José Miguel Amador continues in the fifth session, to be held next Tuesday, from 9:30 am, at the Central Criminal Court of Lisbon.
Before the witness spoke, lawyer Inês Almeida Costa concluded her questioning, having corroborated, in general, the inquiries of the other assistants in the process – Luís Pais Antunes, João Medeiros and Rui Costa Pereira -, confirming that she had suggested psychological support to the second.
The MP made a request for the lawyer’s mailbox, present on a PJ’s computer, to be viewed in the courtroom in a future session. Journalists will not have access, in order to “safeguard the interests and professional secrets” of the assistant.
Rui Pinto, 31, will answer for a total of 90 crimes: 68 of improper access, 14 of violation of correspondence and six of illegitimate access, targeting entities such as Sporting, Doyen, the law firm PLMJ, the Portuguese Federation of Football and the Attorney General’s Office, and also for computer sabotage to the SAD of Sporting and extortion, as attempted.
That last crime concerns Doyen and also led to the indictment of lawyer Aníbal Pinto, then Rui Pinto’s representative.
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 program for the protection of witnesses in an undisclosed location and under police protection.
Aníbal Pinto demands explanations for Doyen’s access to the PJ’s letter
Lawyer Aníbal Pinto, accused in the Football Leaks case, said this Thursday that the Judiciary Police (PJ) has to “explain” the sharing of a letter with lawyer Pedro Henriques, representative of Doyen, regarding the origin of the emails.
I was shocked, I hope the PJ has the dignity to explain this. I was surprised, I have never seen a police such as the Judiciary, in an investigation that is subject to professional secrecy, giving this office to the agent of one of the parties”, said the defendant after leaving the Central Criminal Court in Lisbon, adding: “If it is true that the PJ was working for Doyen, if Doyen is in charge of the PJ, I cannot understand this.”
At issue are the statements of the PJ inspector José Miguel Amador, during the fourth session of the trial, in which the first witness to be heard before the panel of judges admitted that Rui Pinto would have been aware of the letter between the PJ and the Russians of the Russian operator Yandex – requesting information about the origin of the emails that were exchanged between the administrator of Doyen, Nélio Lucas, and Rui Pinto (then still anonymous) – from Pedro Henriques’ computer.
Asked by the president of the collective of judges, Margarida Alves, about the reason for sharing this office with the representative of Doyen, the inspector of the Judiciary was not very clear, explaining only that “it will have been shared to speed up the arrival of the Russians”. José Miguel Amador acknowledged having no direct knowledge of how this sharing was carried out and underlined that “it is not a habit” for the PJ to act in this way.
The PJ has an obligation to clarify public opinion. These are things too serious to go unexplained”, countered Aníbal Pinto, reiterating: “What I heard is unbelievable: the PJ being at the service of Doyen? Are you using others because you don’t have international capacity? But does Doyen have more international capability? I couldn’t see it.”
The defendant in the Football Leaks case also noted that José Amador’s statements made it clear that he did not do “anything illegal” in the meeting with Nélio Lucas and Pedro Henriques in the service area in Oeiras, which served as the basis for the accusation of the crime of attempted extortion .
The inspector said that they set up an ambush to catch me in the act of committing a crime and the question is: why didn’t they arrest me? Because I don’t do anything illegal, everything I did was legal”, he said, while repeating his conviction that he will be acquitted.
As for the brief words exchanged with Rui Pinto before the start of the afternoon’s work, Aníbal Pinto guaranteed that he only asked if the creator of the electronic platform was okay and if he was “holding up” the process, having also wished for “the best of luck of the world”.
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