Man City whistleblower Pinto to stay under police protection

• Protection measures which were due to end on Saturday will now remain in effect pending a new decision, the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

Portuguese whistleblower and founder of "Football Leaks" Rui Pinto poses in Paris on February 1, 2024. Portuguese whistleblower Rui Pinto, the man behind the "Football Leaks", opened his hard drives to French and European investigators on January 31 and 31, 2024, blowing the whistle on another potentially turbulent match for European soccer. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP)

Computer hacker Rui Pinto, the man behind the Football Leaks website which helped trigger the Premier League probe into Manchester City's finances, will remain under police protection, Portuguese authorities confirmed Friday.

Protection measures which were due to end on Saturday will now remain in effect pending a new decision, the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

A previous resolution was nullified because Pinto had not been "duly informed of the reasons for the decision" and had not had the opportunity to challenge it, the statement added.

Pinto's lawyers last week denounced irregularities in the proceedings, highlighting the real threats facing their client, who was assaulted in Lisbon last April.

The 37-year-old said he had to move to a secret location "due to the multiple death threats" he had received.

Pinto has been a protected witness since 2020 after agreeing to grant Portuguese authorities access to millions of files gathered before his arrest.

Arrested in Hungary where he was living in January 2019 and extradited to his home country Portugal, Pinto spent more than a year in pre-trial detention before agreeing to cooperate with authorities by granting them access to the encrypted data in his possession.

Pinto was both a defendant and a protected witness in the Portuguese justice system. He is also cooperating with investigators from other European countries.

During his first trial, the former history student and self-taught computer expert admitted hacking computers to obtain millions of documents which he began publishing online in late 2015.

Passed on to a consortium of European investigative media outlets, this wealth of information exposed questionable practices involving star football players, clubs and agents, subsequently leading to tax adjustments and judicial investigations in several countries.

A Portuguese court handed Pinto a suspended four-year sentence in September 2023 after he was found guilty on counts of attempted extortion, illegal access to data and breach of correspondence.