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The Judiciary Police (PJ) opened disciplinary proceedings against the inspector who admitted in court to having signed without reading a report about the investigation into the Football Leaks case. The information was revealed this Thursday, in what is the 35th session of the Rui Pinto trial, by Carlos Cabreiro, director of the PJ’s Cybercrime Combat Unit (UNC3T). “I have never seen an episode of this nature.“, he said, heard as a witness.
It was one of the concerns of the national director of the PJ. He anticipated and informed me that he would make a disciplinary inquiry,” he declared in court.
Carlos Cabreiro was not on the initial list of defense witnesses. He was enrolled in yesterday’s session, Wednesday, by the lawyer of the defendant Aníbal Pinto to give statements in this Thursday’s session as a witness. When questioned, the director of UNC3T considered the “attitude” of the “unprofessional” inspector and said he could not understand his “motivation” for signing a document without reading it.
In 26 years of activity, I have made hundreds of reports, perhaps thousands, and I have never had a performance of this type”, he added.
The official recalled that he himself warned inspector Aida Freitas when she was listed as a witness, similarly to what is done with other elements of the PJ, with the aim of reminding her of her intervention in the Football Leaks case. “The inspector has to be prepared to come to court. They have thousands of inquiries and may be unable to remember things”, explained Carlos Cabreiro. However, the director of UNC3T assured that, in that conversation, the inspector never mentioned that she would have signed the report without reading it. On the contrary: “He mentioned that he was not sure if he already remembered [da sua intervenção]more than, if he had any difficulty, he would refer to the document he had signed”.
Football Leaks. PJ inspector confesses that she signed a report without reading it. “If you are in the Anti-Corruption Unit, you should read it”
Inspector Aida Freitas — who is now being investigated by the Public Ministry — was secretly present at the meeting at a service station on the A5 between representatives of Doyen and Aníbal Pinto, Rui Pinto’s lawyer at the time. The meeting, supposedly scheduled to negotiate how many millions Doyen would be paying in exchange for not disclosing documents about the company that the alleged hacker would have in his possession, would become one of the most important and solid pieces of evidence to accuse Aníbal Pinto and Rui. Pinto the crime of attempted extortion. In court, Aida Freitas admitted that she had not heard “anything” from the meeting and that she had signed the RDE (External Diligence Report), without reading it. “I didn’t read what I signed. I have to be very honest, very sincere. wasn’t far enough away [para ouvir]”, he confessed at the time.
Football Leaks. DIAP has already opened an investigation into the PJ inspector who signed (without reading) a report on the investigation of Rui Pinto
The trial continues next Wednesday with the hearing of former head of Doyen’s IT system, Jake Hockley. In the following session, Thursday, the witnesses for Rui Pinto’s defense began to be heard: on that day, the hearing by former coordinator of Bloco de Esquerda, Francisco Louçã.
Rui Pinto, the main defendant, is responsible for 90 crimes — all related to having accessed the computer systems and mailboxes emails of people linked to Sporting, Doyen, the PLMJ law firm, the Portuguese Football Federation, the Portuguese Bar Association and the PGR. Among those targeted are Jorge Jesus, Bruno de Carvalho, the then director of the DCIAP Amadeu Guerra or the lawyer José Miguel Júdice. There are, therefore, 68 of undue access, 14 of violation of correspondence, six of illegitimate access and also for computer sabotage to Sporting’s SAD and for attempted extortion of the Doyen investment fund.
Aníbal Pinto, his lawyer at the time of the alleged crimes, is liable for the crime of attempted extortion because he served as Rui Pinto’s intermediary in the alleged extortion attempt from Doyen. And that’s why the two sit, side by side, in front of the panel of judges.
Rui Pinto. The “spiky-haired” boy who used to get into the school computers before he was “John” from Football Leaks
The alleged hacker has been in preventive detention since March 22, 2019 and was placed under house arrest on April 8 of this year, in a house provided by the PJ. Following a request made by the defendant’s defense, the judge Margarida Alves, president of the collective of judges — who is judging Rui Pinto and whose assistants are judges Ana Paula Conceição and Pedro Lucas — decided to release him. The alleged hacker left the PJ premises in early August and his current address is unknown.
