The 47th session of the Football Leaks trial, at the Lisbon Central Criminal Court, was marked by the testimonies of the two inspectors of the Judiciary Police (PJ) who, in October 2015, carried out at the A5 service station, in Oeiras, the surveillance operation of the meeting between the then CEO of Doyen, Nélio Lucas, the lawyer and collaborator Pedro Henriques and Aníbal Pinto, the other defendant in this case, who was representing Rui Pinto.
The judges questioned Aida Freitas and Hugo Monteiro following the contradictions in previous statements of the two PJ inspectors, with the first witness assuming that he signed without reading the External Diligence Report (RDE) of that operation. The court wanted to understand the circumstances surrounding the meeting, which supports the charge of the crime of attempted extortion.
Aida Freitas handed the judges documents that, in her view, prove that it was the investigation coordinator José Amador who wrote the RDE based on the inspectors’ report, without having been at the service station. Hugo Monteiro, who had declared that he had prepared the document, explained that he did so on the basis of the transmission of the facts of the diligence to José Amador. «When I say that I draw up an RDE, I mean the content», he explained, now saying: «The person who wrote it was Inspector José Amador.»
Upon leaving the courtroom, Aníbal Pinto expressed his shock at the ease with which Judiciary Police inspectors lie in court. “As a lawyer and a citizen, I will take this case to the extreme and I will file criminal complaints. What resulted is that, in the last session, who had prepared, witnessed and confirmed an RDE was an inspector named Hugo Monteiro and an inspector named Aida Freitas. Inspector Aida came to say that, after all, it was Inspector (José) Amador who had prepared the RDE. The court found that shocking. After the confrontation, after all, it was inspector Amador who carried out the RDE. I don’t know how Inspector Hugo Monteiro confirms an RDE that he didn’t do, that he can’t explain and that he read at the hearing and confirmed in the hearing something he didn’t do, but which he signed. This is too serious not to be punished in criminal terms and, for my part, I will go to the Public Ministry.”
For the rest, Rui Pinto’s testimony is scheduled for May 13, however, this is pending the consultation of the external disk seized by the PJ, a process that is delayed. «There is a very large delay in the PJ, in the indexing capacity. I am afraid that the scheduled period will not be fulfilled. It is not due to lack of will on the part of the accused, but due to technical difficulties that have occurred so far and I believe that it would be good for the court to inquire directly with the PJ regarding how this analysis is going”, explained Francisco Teixeira da Mota, lawyer for the founder of Football. Leaks, outside the courthouse.
