Hungary will transfer whistleblower Rui Pinto, known to the football leaks, to his native Portugal. The appeals court in Budapest has confirmed the corresponding extradition judgment of the Municipal Court in Budapest from the beginning of the month. Pinto is the head behind Football Leak's platform, which has caused a sensation in world football with its revelations since 2015.
When Pinto is delivered is still unclear. He is first heard as a witness by Belgian investigators. These hope to find in Pinto's data further evidence of corruption, tax fraud and community fraud in top Belgian football. Pinto to be transferred after the conversation with the Belgians.
The Portuguese was arrested in Budapest in mid-January. It also had been secured with ten hard drives. A large part of the data on it he had not shared with the media, Pinto had later explained in a conversation with the SPIEGEL. The Court of Appeals also confirmed the transfer of the confiscated data to the Portuguese authorities.
Pinto has allegations
The data are confidential documents from the international football industry and offshore banking. According to Portuguese police Pinto is suspected, inter alia, "the improper acquisition and distribution of data and the attempted extortion". These reproaches rejected Pinto. "I'm not a hacker," Pinto said, "In the end, it's about whistleblowers exposing operations that would otherwise be hidden from society: crime, abuses, wrongdoing."
Investigations by the authorities in Portugal are less about football leaks than about informal leaks published on the FC Porto TV channel and on blogs. These Infolecks led to investigations against the record champion Benfica Lisbon, who is said to have bought referees and games. Because of the Infolecks Benfica reported against FC Porto.
SPIEGEL and the research network European Investigative Collaborations (EIC) have been publishing research for more than two years, also based on documents from the Football Leaks disclosure platform. For reasons of protection of informants, SPIEGEL and EIC in principle do not express the identity of possible sources.