Lisbon (AFP)
Now under house arrest, hacker Rui Pinto, behind the revelations of "Football Leaks" and "Luanda Leaks", has expressed his willingness to cooperate with the Portuguese justice system, according to a judicial document consulted Thursday by AFP.
Rui Pinto "has changed posture" and "is willing to collaborate with the Portuguese justice", said the judge in charge of the case in the order on the house arrest of the hacker transmitted to AFP by his lawyers.
The judge further justified her decision by the fact that the risk of escape from Rui Pinto was limited "insofar as the borders are currently subject to high controls due to the pandemic" of Covid-19. She also stressed that the hacker should "benefit, like any other citizen, from the best possible conditions for staying healthy and safe".
Rui Pinto, arrested in Hungary and extradited to his country a little over a year ago, has been released from pretrial detention to be placed under house arrest with a ban on internet access, his lawyers announced on Wednesday.
Presented by his defenders as a whistleblower, the hacker must be tried for extortion, for having tried to blackmail the Doyen Sports investment fund and various computer crimes linked to leaks known as "Football Leaks" that he organized from the end of 2015.
The revelations of the "Football Leaks" have led to the opening of legal proceedings in France, Spain, Belgium and Switzerland and remain to this day the most important leak of information behind the scenes of the football.
In January, Rui Pinto claimed to be also behind the "Luanda Leaks", a leak of 715,000 compromising documents for the Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos, daughter of former president José Eduardo dos Santos.
Former director of the national oil company Sonangol and still at the head of a host of companies, Isabel dos Santos is suspected of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering by the justice of her country, which froze her assets in Angola and demanded his extradition.
© 2020 AFP