PLMJ lawyers interviewed this Thursday afternoon at the 16th session of the Football Leaks trial highlighted the impact caused by the alleged intrusion by the platform’s creator, Rui Pinto, into the office’s computer system.
João Carminho, José Formosinho Sánchez and Sara Estima Martins were witnesses in the ongoing trial at the Lisbon Central Criminal Court and joined in condemning the breach of professional secrecy to which they were obliged as lawyers, in addition to admitting, to different degrees, the negative effects on their activity and on a personal level.
“I had insomnia every night wondering if they were going to disclose [documentos do meu computador] or not. It was something that made me very worried, because they weren’t just my documents, they were also those of family members and clients”said José Formosinho Sánchez, noting: “The impact was huge and I spent weeks looking at what was removed and what consequences it could have. We spent many hours trying to figure out what content had been copied.”
Working at PLMJ since 2011, the lawyer confessed that he only had e-mail professional and that this e-mail account had “all its life” stored there, creating a feeling of “worry” that lasted for several weeks. According to José Formosinho Sánchez, the documents on his computer weren’t just about football.
Sara Estima Martins, who has been a member of that firm for 14 years, considered that there had been a “very large impact” when it was discovered that there had been illegitimate access to the office’s computer system and the subsequent disclosure of lawyers’ documents on the internet, which she reiterated were “all confidential” and “covered by professional secrecy”.
“Professional secrecy is the most important thing for a lawyer and interference is the worst that can happen. There was fear, concern, insecurity and it caused a lot of inconvenience. This is something that impacts on a lawyer’s own reputation, even though he is not responsible. the fear of what can happen, and this ends up changing a person”he stressed.
Finally, João Carminho, who at the time of Rui Pinto’s alleged intrusion into the system – between the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 – was just a trainee lawyer, said that his e-mail was then “disabled for security reasons”.
However, despite the withdrawal of access to the e-mail and the fixed computer he had in his office, he assured that he never felt “a target” by other colleagues and that he was never accused of anything.
“It created a general malaise, nobody knew what was going on. I was amazed”confessed João Carminho, who had as his patron the lawyer João Medeiros, one of those responsible for the defense of Benfica’s SAD in the e-Toupeira process and who saw his email box published on the blog Mercado de Benfica.
“No one ever explained to me how the access was made”he added.
The Football Leaks trial continues next Tuesday with the hearing of more witnesses related to access to PLMJ’s computer system.
Rui Pinto, 31, is responsible for 90 crimes: 68 of undue access, 14 of violation of correspondence, six of illegitimate access, targeting entities such as Sporting, Doyen, the law firm PLMJ, the Portuguese Football Federation and the Attorney General’s Office, and also for computer sabotage of Sporting’s SAD and for extortion, in the attempted form. This last crime concerns Doyen and was what also led to the indictment of lawyer Aníbal Pinto.
The creator of Football Leaks has been free since August 7, “due to his collaboration” with the Judiciary Police and his “critical sense”, but is, for security reasons, included in the witness protection program in undisclosed and under police protection.
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