Rui Pinto was sentenced to a four-year suspended sentence for committing nine crimes. The reading of the ruling takes place this Monday at the Justice Campus, in Lisbon, at the culmination of a process that lasted around three years. Rui Pinto was accused of 90 crimes: 68 of improper access, 14 of violation of correspondence and six of illegitimate access. He was also accused of attempted extortion computer sabotage.
The court has already proven the attempted extortion of Doyen, an investment fund linked to the world of football.
He was also convicted of five crimes of illegitimate access (Doyen, Sporting, the Portuguese Football Federation, the law firm PLMJ and the Attorney General’s Office) and three crimes of tampering with correspondence (lawyers João Medeiros, Rui Costa Pereira and Inês Almeida Costa).
The hacker was accused of 90 crimes but ended up benefiting, in some of them, from the amnesty law approved in connection with Pope Francis’ visit to Portugal on the occasion of World Youth Day. Newscast, September 11, 2023
Rui Pinto was accused of violating correspondence from entities such as Sporting, Doyen, the PLMJ law firm, the Portuguese Football Federation and the Attorney General’s Office.
Rui Pinto was, at the time of the events, less than 30 years old. Currently 34 years old, he was pardoned for 79 crimes: 68 of improper access and 11 crimes of tampering with correspondence. Lawyer Aníbal Pinto was convicted of the only crime he was accused of: the attempted extortion of Doyen, which earned him a two-year suspended prison sentence. As an accused, Rui Pinto enjoyed protection from the justice system under the witness protection program.
In this case, the hacker admitted to the judges that he illegally invaded several computers to obtain millions of documents that he began publishing on a blog at the end of 2015, with the aim of “disclosing the hidden part of football”, as the hacker himself described. Rui Pinto.
“Public service”
Upon leaving the court after reading the ruling, Rui Pinto’s lawyer admitted that he was satisfied with the fact that the judges recognized the “public service” provided by the hacker.
Upon leaving the court, Francisco Teixeira da Mota also assessed as positive the fact that there was no conviction with effective imprisonment. He recognizes that there was this risk in legal terms, but considers that collaboration with the authorities was “taken into account” when making this decision.
In turn, lawyer João Medeiros, one of those targeted in this process, says that any compensation he receives will be delivered to the IPO’s pediatric wing. “I don’t want any money from this gentleman,” he stated.
As he leaves court, he says that there is no monetary value that can compensate for what he went through. “The compensation, for what I went through, there is no money at stake,” he added. Asked by journalists about the consequences of the mail violation, João Medeiros gave an example: “Imagine that they took your mailbox and disclosed all your sources. From there, think about what the consequences would be for your professional life,” he replied.
This is not the only case involving Rui Pinto. In July, the hacker was accused of another 377 computer crimes as part of another case arising from Football Leaks.
It is recalled that Rui Pinto was detained in Budapest, Hungary, in March 2019, and was later extradited to Portugal. He was held in pre-trial detention for around a year.
In April 2020 he was placed under house arrest and, after collaborating with the courts in accessing information considered essential, he was released in August 2020. The trial that is now ending began in September of that year.
2023-09-11 16:02:12
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