“The protection of whistleblowers has been improved, especially with the 2019 directive, but it is still insufficient”, declared Antoine Deltour, former auditor of the multinational PwC who was the source of the revelations by LuxLeaks, during the trial of Rui Pinto, author from the Football Leaks blog.
“It is in society’s interest to make this protection more comprehensive, because this additional protection will make it easier to fight corruption,” said Antoine Deltour.
The witness recalled that the directive currently only protects whistleblowers who reveal information from entities they worked for, arguing that the legislation also protects other types of whistleblowers.
Deltour said he did not advocate that “everything be revealed by everyone”, noting that it should be in the public interest to determine whether or not a whistleblower should be protected.
Deltour, who is part of the Signals association, admitted that this entity financially supported Rui Pinto, defraying part of his expenses with lawyers.
And he recalled that “the Football Leaks case had revelations that took place outside the professional framework”. “I only know what is public, but the information revealed is of extreme public interest,” he declared.
Asked whether a hacker who accesses third-party computer systems in search of data should be protected, Deltour replied that revealing a corruption scheme is in the public interest and deserves protection.
Asked by Doyen’s lawyer, Sofia Ribeiro Branco, about whether the Signals association encourages hackers to attack systems in search of information, Deltour replied in the negative. “We do not encourage whistleblowers, we only give advice and only act upon disclosure,” Deltour replied.
