A group of personalities recognized at national level by the Portuguese civil society joined in the subscription of a petition for the end of the preventive detention of Rui Pinto, the Portuguese who is in preventive detention awaiting trial for 90 crimes following “Football Leaks ”. From politicians and former rulers, to musicians, writers, journalists, doctors and comedians, there are personalities from across the political spectrum.
The petition sent to the newsroom of Jornal Económico by the former PS MEP Ana Gomes, this Thursday, March 5th, has names like those of the writers Afonso Reis Cabral and José Eduardo Agualusa, of BE coordinator, Catarina Martins, BE founder and first general secretary, Francisco Louçã, journalists Pippo Russo, Bárbara Reis and Vicente Jorge Silva, or opinion maker Miguel Sousa Tavares are among the subscribers.
Former governors João Cravinho (former Minister of Industry and Technology and father of current Minister of Defense João Gomes Cravinho), Vera Jardim (former Minister of Justice) and Miguel Poiares Maduro (former Deputy Minister of Regional Development) also appear among the subscribers .
The names of humorists Luís Franco-Bastos, Salvador Martinha and Diogo Batáguas, as well as the musicians Miguel Guedes and Plutónio also appear on the list.
“The application of preventive detention – with periods of absolute isolation – to a Portuguese citizen, four years after the alleged practice of a crime of extortion in the attempted form, is unprecedented in Portugal and cannot fail to be seen as an early punishment by Rui Pinto pending judgment ”, reads the petition document.
The underwriters speak out against the preventive detention of Rui Pinto and point out that the Portuguese is “at the origin of revelations of unequivocal public interest that gave rise to journalistic investigations conducted by international consortia, such as Football Leaks and Luanda Leaks”. For this reason, “the Portuguese authorities, just as the authorities of other countries have already done”, should recognize “the importance of the information brought by them to the public and seek the collaboration of Rui Pinto”.
“Rui Pinto’s arrest is all the more shocking because it contrasts with the freedom and impunity of those who commit crimes with the seriousness of those reported by him,” reads the petition.
Rui Pinto has been in prison since March 2019, having recently revealed that he delivered a hard drive to the Whistleblower Protection Platform in Africa, which allowed the recent disclosure of the Luanda Leaks, a corruption case related to the Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos.
At the age of 30, Rui Pinto will be tried for 68 crimes of undue access, for 14 crimes of violation of correspondence, for six crimes of illegitimate access and for computer sabotage to Sporting’s SAD and for extortion, in the attempted form, the latter a crime for which the lawyer Aníbal Pinto was also pronounced.
In September 2019, the Public Ministry (MP) had accused the hacker of 147 crimes, 75 of which were illegitimate access, 70 of violation of correspondence, one of computer sabotage and one of extortion attempt, for accessing computer systems. from Sporting, from Doyen, from the law firm PLMJ, from the Portuguese Football Federation, from the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) and from the Score Platform and subsequent disclosure of dozens of confidential documents from these entities.
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