Lawyers for Portuguese whistleblower Rui Pinto had little illusion before his country's justice system was announced. Friday January 17, from the Lisbon court, investigating judge Cláudia Pina listed the 93 charges against the 31-year-old "hacker". The latter is behind the revelations of "Football Leaks". This massive data leak triggered a media and legal tornado in the fall of 2016 and two years later.
Most of the 147 charges brought against Rui Pinto by the Portuguese prosecution (attempted extortion, sabotage, crimes of illegitimate access, hacking and violation of the secrecy of correspondence) have been retained by the courts. The 30-year trial could be held in Portugal this year.
The investigating judge declared that Mr. Pinto did not " could never be considered a whistleblower, " pointing character "Illicit" of his approach.
The young man has been incarcerated in Lisbon since March 2019 and his extradition had been authorized by Hungary, where he resided. Rui Pinto, alias "John", has not been heard by the Portuguese courts since his first hearing in March, and his pre-trial detention has been continued.
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93 offenses
In January 2019, a European arrest warrant had been issued and then extended by Portugal against Mr. Pinto. The investment fund Doyen Sports, apostle of the third property of the players (TPO), and the Sporting Club Portugal accuse him of having "hacked" their computer system in autumn 2015. He is accused of having attempted to extort Doyen Sports, in exchange for a sum of between 500,000 and one million euros.
His lawyers believe that the latter grievance has been put forward for "Criminalize" their customer behind the biggest leak in history (10 terabytes of computer data, 10,000 billion bytes).
" Of the six offenses mentioned during the European arrest warrant, we pass to 93. The principle of specialty linked to extradition is severely torn apart when the charges are multiplied by 15. The legal consequences will therefore be drawn, says Me William Bourdon, Rui Pinto's lawyer. No one can doubt that the Portuguese authorities are more zealous in criminalizing Pinto rather than the Portuguese criminal networks revealed by the Football Leaks. The asymmetry is total. "
" The Portuguese justice having finished its investigation against Rui Pinto, it has the obligation to carry out a punching action against the plaintiffs of this case who are involved in the organized crime denounced by Rui Pinto, reacts Swiss lawyer Philippe Renz, representative of the Swiss player management company Sport 7, which began in 2017 to tackle " the law enforcement midfielder area », Especially in Portugal. "In the meantime, he must be released without delay and he cannot be validly tried until the unlawful and criminal practices of these actors have been investigated and also brought to justice."
Heard as a witness by French justice in 2018
In November 2018, Rui Pinto was heard as a witness by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF). He handed over 12 million computer files to French investigators. The Portuguese authorities want to recover the colossal mass of 10 terabytes of data seized from his home.
Rui Pinto is also in contact with the German tax authorities and was interviewed in March by the Belgian federal magistrate Julien Moinil. Most of the data is encrypted and the whistleblower is keen to make it usable when his detention is lifted.
On the other hand, French, Swiss and Belgian prosecutors had sent the Hungarian authorities a request for "European cooperation", within the framework of Eurojust (the Judicial Cooperation Unit of the European Union), to hear Mr. Pinto as a witness and obtain the data entered.
"Football is untouchable"
At the initiative of France, several European countries (France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain) had held a meeting and organized a press point, in February, in The Hague (Netherlands), to discuss the case Rui Pinto, who had enabled the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) consortium, including Mediapart is part of multiplying the revelations. Which led to the conviction in 2019 of Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo and coach José Mourinho for tax fraud.
Since the detention of his client, Me Bourdon has multiplied initiatives with international organizations. In September 2019, he sent a letter to David Kaye, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the protection and promotion of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, to alert him to " the abuse of the Portuguese authorities ". The file is currently being examined by Mr. Kaye.
Rui Pinto’s lawyer also plans to file a complaint with the European Commission next week. " Pinto's trial will be a grand trial with leading witnesses who will demonstrate that he is an exceptional whistleblower "Insists Me Bourdon. To the German magazine Der Spiegel, Rui Pinto had recently made this confidence, tinged with fatalism: “Football is untouchable. "
