July 12 – A Lisbon court on Tuesday postponed a verdict in the trial of Rui Pinto, the infamous whistleblower whose string of incriminating revelations shook the footballing world before he was controversially extradited from Hungary to his native Portugal.
The latest move was taken due to a new law in Portugal set to pardon some young offenders, depending on their age, that is due to come into force in the light of Pope Francis’ visit to the country next month to attend World Youth Day.
Pinto, who operated under the pseudonym of John, faces 90 charges including unauthorised access to data, violation of correspondence and attempted extortion.
His trial started in September 2020 following the most extensive information leak in sports history, exposing some of the dirtiest secrets in European football.
A self-taught computer mastermind, Pinto acknowledges releasing the data but says he was acting in the public interest.
His supporters have long claimed that his whistleblowing status should have been protected rather than him be treated as hacker whose actions led to millions of confidential documents being provided to the Football Leaks website and then published by a string of media groups.
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