By Catarina Demony
LISBON (Reuters) – A Lisbon court postponed on Tuesday a verdict in the trial of Rui Pinto, the creator of Football Leaks, due to a new law set to pardon some young offenders that might come into force soon in light of Pope Francis’ visit to Portugal next month.
Pinto, 34, set up the Football Leaks website in 2015 to share confidential documents of national and international organisations, including transfer fees, agreements between sports entities, contracts and information related to players’ agencies, prosecutors have said.
He faces 90 charges including unauthorised access to data, violation of correspondence and attempted extortion. His trial started in September 2020.
Pinto, a former history student and a self-taught computer mastermind, acknowledges releasing the more than 70 million documents but says he was a whistleblower acting in the public interest. The ruling was initially scheduled for April 28 but was postponed to Thursday, July 13.
However, to mark an upcoming visit by Pope Francis on Aug. 2-6 to attend World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal’s majority Socialist government announced last month a one-year pardon for young people aged 16-30 serving sentences of up to eight years.
For young people within the same age group, the law also establishes an “amnesty regime” for crimes with a prison sentence of up to one year or fines of up to 1,000 euros ($1,100). It does not cover serious crimes such as homicides or domestic violence.
In a statement, Judge Margarida Alves said Pinto was covered by the law due to his age at the time the crimes he is accused of were committed.
“It would be useless…to deliver a ruling that then, days later, might have to be changed,” Alves said.
The reading will take place on July 31 if the amnesty law comes into force by July 28, or on Sept. 11 if it does not.
Football Leaks’ data seen by Reuters showed how some of the richest and most prominent figures in soccer avoided tax by channelling earnings offshore. It also examined the huge sums flowing through leading clubs and the uneven way authorities have applied rules.
The documents provided some of the evidence that led to a ban – since overturned – on English Premier League club Manchester City from competing in the European Champions League for alleged breaches of Financial Fair Play rules.
Pinto was arrested in Hungary in January 2019, though he was later freed from house arrest and put under witness protection.
(Reporting by Catarina Demony; editing by Andrei Khalip and Angus MacSwan)
