Rui Pinto’s lawyers made a request this Thursday asking that a hard drive linked to the law firm PLMJ be declared non-existent for the purposes of evidence in the trial of the ‘Football Leaks’ case.
Francisco Teixeira da Mota and Luísa Teixeira da Mota stressed that the defendant was today “surprised” with the existence of this device with 1 Tb [terabyte] capacity, following an intervention by the Public Prosecutor (MP), Marta Viegas, regarding the future hearing of one of the witnesses linked to the PLMJ.
Immediately thereafter, the lawyers requested that the hard drive be declared “non-existent in terms of evidence”, stressing that it “is not included in the records” and defending the “procedural nullity” of adding it at this time. Following the submission of the application, the MP asked for 10 days to comment.
Rui Pinto, 31, 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 program for the protection of witnesses in an undisclosed location and under police protection.
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