Football Leaks. MP considers all facts proven and admits suspended sentence for Rui Pinto

The Public Prosecution Service (MP) considered all facts in the process of the Football Leaks this Monday, dropped two of the 241 crimes for which Rui Pinto is accused and admitted the possibility of suspended sentence.

Rui Pinto responds on trial for a total of 241 crimes -201 of qualified illegitimate access, 22 of aggravated correspondence violation and 18 of computer damage -with the MP requesting acquittal in two computer damage crimes.

Thus, the accusation reduces to 239 crimes, 16 of these crimes of computer damage, keeping the rest. However, the MP’s prosecutor admitted the possibility of Rui Pinto to be sentenced to a suspended imprisonment penalty in his execution, in accordance with the age and the fact that there was no recurrence in the practice of crimes.

The MP also considered that Rui Pinto should not be treated as ‘complainant’, or ‘Whistleblower’, since he « accessed illegitimately » to the entities aimed at the process, through computer accesses, and made this information public.

In addition to Benfica, among the figures and institutions targeted there are also other clubs, Portuguese Professional Football League, companies, lawyers, judges, prosecutors, tax authority and national internal security network.

The creator of Football Leaks was pronounced for trial last March, with the Central Criminal Instruction Court of 134 correspondence violation crimes, based on the application of the Amnesty Law approved in 2023, during the World Youth Day, as the crimes that are imputed were allegedly committed before being 30 years.

Rui Pinto was convicted in the case ‘Football Leaks’, in September 2023, by the Lisbon Central Central Court, to four years in prison with suspended sentence, for crimes of extortion in tempted form, violation of aggravated correspondence and illegitimate access.

In November 2023, he was also sentenced to six months in prison in France, also with a suspended sentence for illegally accessing Paris Saint-Germain emails.